Abstract
It is said information exists in one's surroundings and “the meanings” and “the values” of surroundings have to be found in the ecological surroundings which is a basis of the affordance theory. We studied the process through which the child patients actively pick up “the meanings” and “the values” from sources in dental clinics and we interpreted them in order that we might predict their behavior and make child management easier. As one step toward this goal we recorded the behavior of children on the videotape when they proceeded to sit in a dental chair and leave it. In this paper, we present the results of the analysis as to how they sat and left, their position and the direction, where they looked and how they touched the chair with their legs and hands.
1. When children took their seats, children 3-4 years olds showed the tendency to climb, face toward the chair, while children 5-7 years old sat backward. When the seat was raised, younger children climbed from the footrest of the chair. When they alighted from the chair, almost all of the subjects, irrespective of age, straightened up and left with their backs to the chair.
2. Approaching the dental chair, most child subjects turned their eyes to the dental chair as they got closer to it.
3. As for the way their legs touched the dental chair, most children touched with their right leg when they climbed face toward the chair and with their left leg when they sat backward.
4. As for the way their hands touched the dental chair,30 to 40% children touched while they were approaching the dental chair.
From the above, it was found that child patients were choosing the best way to get on the dental chair according to their age and ability. At that time it was suggested that not only visual sensation but also tactile sensation was performed as a way to collect information for cognition.
