title: Haptic-2D: A new haptic test battery assessing the tactual abilities of sighted and visually impaired children and adolescents with two-dimensional raised materials.
abstract: To fill an important gap in the psychometric assessment of children and adolescents with impaired vision, we designed a new battery of haptic tests, called Haptic-2D, for visually impaired and sighted individuals aged five to 18 years. Unlike existing batteries, ours uses only two-dimensional raised materials that participants explore using active touch. It is composed of 11 haptic tests, measuring scanning skills, tactile discrimination skills, spatial comprehension skills, short-term tactile memory, and comprehension of tactile pictures. We administered this battery to 138 participants, half of whom were sighted (n=69), and half visually impaired (blind, n=16; low vision, n=53). Results indicated a significant main effect of age on haptic scores, but no main effect of vision or Age × Vision interaction effect. Reliability of test items was satisfactory (Cronbach's alpha, α=0.51-0.84). Convergent validity was good, as shown by a significant correlation (age partialled out) between total haptic scores and scores on the B101 test (rp=0.51, n=47). Discriminant validity was also satisfactory, as attested by a lower but still significant partial correlation between total haptic scores and the raw score on the verbal WISC (rp=0.43, n=62). Finally, test-retest reliability was good (rs=0.93, n=12; interval of one to two months). This new psychometric tool should prove useful to practitioners working with young people with impaired vision.
authors.affiliation: Aix Marseille University, PSYCLE EA3273, 13621 Aix en Provence, France; University of Toulouse III, PRISSMH EA4561, 31062 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Anaïs
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mazella
authors.affiliation: University of Toulouse III, PRISSMH EA4561, 31062 Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Michel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Albaret
authors.affiliation: Aix Marseille University, PSYCLE EA3273, 13621 Aix en Provence, France. Electronic address: delphine.picard@univ-amu.fr.
authors.forename: Delphine
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Picard
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D046709:Pattern Recognition, Physiological; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D055698:Touch Perception; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Children; Haptic; Psychometric assessment; Visual impairment