Abstract
In the Pediatric Dentistry Department of the Nippon Dental University Hospital, Niigata, a training program for infant patients has been implemented to accustom them to their new surroundings. For pediatric dentists, it is very important to watch the behavior of infants in training. In a corner of the training room, there is a basin for mouth rinsing. The stainless cup receptacle is so designed that the user is supposed to placed the cup not just beneath the faucet but a little towards the front. In the present study, we observed the behavioral pattern of infants from filling of the cup with water to rinsing of the mouth. The subjects were 120 children from three years one month to eight years five months in age. From a viewpoint of ecological psychology, we thought it should be possible to determine the phase of development of each of the subjects through the observation of this behavior.Some children moved the cup under the spout before pushing the button, and others only after turning the tap on. The difference in the manner of filling the cup with water was related with age and the number of times they used the training room. The children's response to visual information was also investigated by observing when they stop pouring water into the cup, which had a marker groove cut in it beforehand. Some filled the cup to the brim; some stopped a bit above the groove; some stopped when the water came exactly to the groove; and others below the groove. These act were also correlated with age. From these findings, we concluded that the observation of the sequence of acts from the pouring of water into a cup to the rinsing of the mouth was useful for knoeing the stages of a child's development.
