the brain-injured child, that these children can become more self-sufficient and culturally adequate than they were previous to the assistance. [42] [46] [48] One outstanding fact seems to dominate the research of many investigators in many disciplinary approaches to the problem of the brain-injured child. Vision and visual skills should be considered as the dominant sensory-motor process in any clinical approach to these children. Optometry primarily concerned with the function and clinical care of the non-pathologic visual mechanism, conceives of vision as the total perceptual process which allows an individual to respond to, interpret, and manipulate his external world as the result of past or present light pattern stimuli from the retinae. This concept of vision was utilized in a clinical project to assist handicapped children. A staff of clinicians representing optometry, ophthalmology, education and psychology set up two training periods of one month duration in Colorado in July of 1957 and 1958. Children were brought to this project by one or both parents, and an intensive program of training was instituted for the parents and for the children. The parents were required to attend lectures and demonstration sessions concerned with the problems of their children. The children were under constant supervision during daylight hours by one or more of the staff. This supervision provided constant learning situations which assisted each child to develop visual-motor performance skills. The program for each child was designed so he would re-experience or recapitulate each level of the visual development sequences which were originally reported in the book, VISION-ITS DEVELOPMENT IN INFANT AND CHILD, by Gesell, Ilg, Bullis, Getman and Ilg.* These studies have been clinically extended in the past ten years by a group of research optometrists, working especially in the area of visual guidance for retarded children. A. Gross-motor activities which would integrate proprioceptive experience with related visual experience. B. Pre-academic activities which would integrate tactual experience with related visual experience. C. Speech development activities which would integrate verbal experience with related visual experience. D. Oculo-motor activities which would integrate the mechanics of sight with visual interpretations. In every area of activity visual motor function and behavior was given dominance and emphasis. The never ending variety of experiences given these children cannot be fully described here. A movie of the entire project has been made which illustrates these many procedures. Since this is a summary report, we must be content to report the concept and the results and leave the details of technique for a later discussion. Every child attending these training periods made significant gains. One youngster, age 17, dismissed from previous special school as psychotic beyond help, is now a dependable, selfsufficient job holder in a large midwestern city. Another, age 13, who came to this project speechless, completely helpless and dependent upon her parents for everything except toilet care, is now doing acceptable academic work in a special classroom. Another, age 13, who received several social promotions in special classrooms in now achieving in the lower third of her group of a standard academic system two grades below her chronologial age grade. Social and interpersonal abilities were improved in every child. All made progress in self-sufficiency. Twenty children in all received the benefits of this special project. At least four have been returned to society as contributors. The optometric profession in presenting this interim report urges your consideration of a functional concept of visual performance and visual-motor processes in every consideration of every child. Visual performance is not determined by the Snellen Chart nor by the refractive status of the eyes. Visual performance and achievement determine a child's ability to cope with his world, be he brain-injured or not. If we can learn to see the child's world as he sees it, we can guide and assist him to visually interpret more of the world-and a more complete and productive child will result, regardless of his diagnostic label. * Published in 1949 by Hoeber, New York, N.Y. Selected Bibliography This bibliography is by no means complete. It has been selected merely to provide a minimum number of references containing sufficient material to justify consideration of the points raised or developed in this paper. 1. Skeffington, A. M., and Associates. Postgraduate papers issued monthly by The Optometric Extension Program, Inc., Duncan, Oklahoma, 1926-1959, Inc. 2. Getman, G. N. "The Developmental Concept Applied to Visual Training." Optometric Extension Program, Inc., Duncan, Oklahoma, November, 1952. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. "Studies in Visual Development" privately published, 1954. "Studies in Perceptual Development" privately published, 1954. "The Child as a Total Organism." Author's mimeograph, 1949. Emery, L.; Poche, W.; Robbins, N.; Treganza, A.; "A Means of Observing the Processes of Form Discrimination in Young Children." Author's mimeograph reporting Postgraduate Research at Ohio State University, Dept. of Psychology, 1952. Kephart, N. D., "Perceptual Development for the Retarded Child." Purdue University Monograph, 1956. "Developmental Vision," Vol. 2, New Series, Optometric Extension Program, Inc., Duncan, Oklahoma, October 1957 to September 1958, Inc. Bullis, G. E., "Developmental Vision" Optometric Extension Program, Inc., Duncan, Oklahoma, December 1950 to September 1951, Inc. "How to Develop Your Child's Intelligence" 6th Edition, Announcer Press, Luverne, Minnesota, 1959. 10. Harmon, D. B., "The Coordinated Classroom, "AIA File No. 35-B, 1951. 11. 12. "Some Preliminary Observations on the Developmental Problems of 160,000 Elementary School Children." Medical Women's Journal, March, 1942. "A Dynamic Theory of Vision," Third Revision, Privately published, 1958. 13. Getman, G. N., "Developmental Vision, Vol. 3," Optometric Extension Program, Inc., Duncan, Oklahoma, October 1958 to September 1959, Inc. 14. Montessori "The Montessori Manual," The W. E. Richardson Co., 1913. (Translated by Dorothy Canfield Fisher) 15. Piaget, Jean, "The Child's Conception of the World." Humanities Press, 1951. 16. Shinn, M. W., "The Biography of a Baby." Houghton- Mifflin, 1899. 17. Wheeler, R. H. and Perkins, F. T., "Principles of Mental Development." Thomas Y. Crowell and Co., 1932. 18. Bode, B. H., "How We Learn." Heath and Company, 1940. 19. Frank, Lawrence K., "Individual Development." Doubleday Papers in Psychology, Random House, 1951. 20. Gibson, J. W., "The Perception of the Visual World." Houghton-Mifflin, 1950. 21. Ittleson, W. H. and Contril, H., "Perception." Doubleday Papers in Psychology, Random House, 1954. 22. Kepes, Gyorgy, "Language of Vision.' Theobold and Cuneo Press, 1947. 23. Lyons, C. V. and Lyons, E. B., "The Power of Visual Training." Journal of the American Optometric Association, 255-262. Part I., 1954. 24. "The Power of Visual Training." Journal of the American Optometric Association, Part 2, November 1956. 25. Renshaw, Samuel, "Psychological Optics Papers." Optometric Extension Program, Inc., Duncan, Oklahoma, 1940-1959, Inc. 26 "Postgraduate Research Lectures," Ohio State University, Educational Congress Lectures, 1940-1959, Inc. 27. Duke-Elder, Sir W. Stewart, "Text Book of Ophthalmology." Volume 1, C. V. Mosby Company, 1942. 28. Adler, Francis Head, "Physiology Of The Eye." C. V. Mosby and Co., 1950, 1953. 29. Linksz, Arthur, "Physiology of the Eye." Volume 2, Vision, Grune and Stratton, 1952. 30. Polyak, S. L., "The Retina." University of Chicago Press, 1941. 31. Vernon, M. D., "Visual Perception." Cambridge University Press, 1937. 32. 1952. "A Further Study of Visual Perception." Cambridge University Press, 33. Gibson, James J., "The Perception of the Visual World." Houghton-Mifflin, 1950. 34. Pratt, Carroll C., "The Role of Past Experience in Visual Perception." Journal of Psychology 30, 1950. 35. Katz, David, "Gestalt Psychology." Ronald Press Co., 1950. 36. Hebb, D. O., "The Organization of Behavior." Wiley, 1949. 37. Gesell, A.; Ilg, F.; Bullis, G. E.; Getman, G. N.; Ilg, V.; "Vision, Its Development in Infant and Child." Paul Hoeber, Inc., 1949. 38. Cannon, Walter B., "The Wisdom of the Body." W. W. Norton and Co., 1932. 39. Sherrington, C., "Man On His Nature." Cambridge University Press, 1951. 40. Grossfield, H. D., "Visual Space and Physical Space." Journal of Psychology, 32, 1951. 41. Nielsen, J. M., "Ideational Motor Plan." Journal of Nervous and Mental Disorders, 108, November, 1948. 42. Ayres, A. Jean, "The Visual-Motor Function." American Journal of Occupational Therapy, Volume XXI. No. 3. May-June, 1958. 43. Wiener, Norbert, "Cybernetics." John Wiley and Sons, 1948. 44. Kluver, Wolfgang, "Cerebral Mechanisms in Behavior." Hixson Symposium. John Wiley and Sons, 1951. 45. Bender, Lauretta, "Psychopathology of Children with Organic Brain Disorders." Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, 1956. 46. Brower, L. M., "Factors Inhibiting Progress of Cerebral Palsied Children." American Journal of Occupational Therapy, Nov.-Dec. 1956. 47. Strauss, A. A., and Lehtinen, L. E., "Psychopathology and Education of the Brain Injured Child, Vol. I, Grune and Stratton, 1947. 48. and Kephart, N. C., "Psychopathology and Education of the Brain Injured Child, Vol. II, Grune and Stratton, 1955. 49. Bender, Lauretta, "A Visual Motor Gestalt Test and Its Clinical Use." Research Monograph #3, The American Orthopsychiatric Association, 1938. 50. Dolphin, J. E. and Cruickshanck, W. M., "Pathology of Concept Formation in Children with Cerebral Palsy." American Journal of Mental Deficiency, October 1951. |