Perception II

Perception equates to effective communication, successful interaction and

facilitates social development. Visual and auditory senses are among the
dominant perceptual senses.
Contingency behaviour is responsive and appropriate to the social
partners preceding behaviour. This is required for most successful social
endeavor, such as language development, social learning, shared activity.
Perceptual deficits may impair the infants ability to interpret cues of
others, and may deliver more ambiguous cues. These deficits will lead to
reduced contingency of social interactions. (Hughes et al, 1999)
Thus, atypical sensory development leads to effects on social interaction.
Vision is considered the dominant sense in perceiving people and joint
engagement. Vision impairment (VI) limits the ability one can do this.
Attention deficits more prevalent in visually impaired (Tadic et al, 2009).
Impairment has associated reduction in shared engagement with objects
(Bigelow, 2003).
Aspects of visual impairment:
Impairment in acuity
Impairment in attention
Impairment in visual control, tracking and shifting (sticky fixation
hard to move vision from one location)
These can impact on parent-infant communication. Visual impairment can
be either simple or co-morbid. How prepared are the parents for the
impairment? How can we impact the environment to help the child?
Congenital Aetiology: retina/optic nerve/cortical.
Preterm birth: retinopathy of prematurity: oxygen toxicity, lesions. Long
hospitalization interferes with parent-infant interactions. Higher level of
parent stress.
Sensory integration theory (DeGangi, 1991): Understanding one sense
developing in isolation is not ecologically valid. Deprivation of
opportunities to explore environment will impair sensory development and
the integration of the senses.
Deprivation: being born with a good perceptual system does not
necessitate it being good in the future its effectiveness will reduce. E.g.
baby lying on its side will decrease auditory perception in that ear.
Deprivation can occur from institutionalized infants (in an orphanage) or
through parental depression.
Autism spectrum disorders (social cognitive impairment): reduced
contingency in social interactions, reduced motivation to engage with
others, impaired understanding of the intentions of others. (Dale and Salt,
2008).