Abstract

Two experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 was designed to determine if Down's Syndrome children exhibit a deficit in tactual discrimination skills that is greater than might be accounted for MA alone. 22 Down's Syndrome children, 22 Non-Down's Syndrome retarded and 22 normal children were selected for the experiments. In a two forced-choice sequential paradigm, subjects were required to explore a standard, geometric shape tactually and then select a matching shape from a comparison pair of shapes(one similar to the standard and a distactor) which were presented tactually. The data was analyzed by ANOVA. The result was as follows. There was no difference among groups. Down's Syndrome children were not significantly inferior to both Non-Down's Syndrome retarded and normal children in tactual discrimination skills when the stimulus figures were presented sequentially. Experiment 2 was designed to determine if Down's Syndrome children exhibit. a deficit in visual-tactual discrimination skills and tactual-visual discrimination skills. In a two forced-choice simultaneous paradigm, the same subjects were tested under visual-tactual condition and under tactual-visual condition. 3(group) &#x00D7; 2(test) design was used. The data was analyzed by NOVA with repeated measures. The result was as follows. There was a significant difference among groups(p<.001). Normal children were significantly superior to both Down's Syndrome children and Non-Down's Syndrome retarded in visual-tactual discrimination skills and in tactual-visual discrimination skills when the stimulus figures were presented simultaneously.