Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

Mendeley  

Zotero  

ahmadibarati A, ahmadibarati S, salimi S, Helbi F. Comparing the Motor Reaction Capability in Visually Impaired and Healthy Students. MEJDS 2014; 3 (3) :78-83
URL: http://jdisabilstud.org/article-1-352-en.html

Objective: Vision is the most powerful source of perception of the external world, and is responsible for transferring 80-90 percent of information to the mind. So, even slight disorders in its functions cause severe deviations in physical, psychological and motor growth. The purpose of this study was to study the motor reaction capability in blind and visually impaired children by comparing them with their healthy equals.

Methods: The study population of this descriptive-comparative study consisted of 8 to12 year-old students of Kermanshah’s public schools. Sixty five students were selected through cluster sampling as the healthy group. Thirty students with a visual sharpness of 0.05-0.04 Diopter in the superior eye volunteered from public and exceptional schools as the group with visual impairment. And 16 students with a maximum visual sharpness of 0.04 Diopter in the superior eye volunteered as the blind group. The subjects’ reactions were measured by the ruler test. Data analysis was done by descriptive and inferential statistics (one-way ANOVA and post hoc Tukey’s test) to examine the difference in means at a p≤0.05.

Results: There were significant differences between the motor reaction capability of ‘blind & visually impaired’ and healthy children, such that blind children were in a better condition. 

Conclusion: The results indicate that blind & visually impaired individuals have a high capacity to learn relief mechanisms to compensate for their defective visual receptors.