Contribution of the haptic perception in the postural control of children

Authors

  • Tatiane Calve Departamento de Educação Física/Unesp Rio Claro SP
  • Eliane Mauerberg-deCastro Departamento de Educação Física/Unesp Rio Claro SP

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5016/82

Keywords:

Percepção háptica. Paradigma âncora. Controle postural.

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to assess the contribution of haptic perception while using an anchor system (Mauerberg-deCastro, 2002) during a postural control task. The task consisted of children--ages five, six and seven years old--walking blindfolded on a balance beam. The children manipulated the anchor system, consisting of two flexible cables with attached loads resting on the floor. We assessed developmental influence on postural control strategies and on haptic perception. Ninety children participated in this study (30 5-year-olds, 30 6-year-olds, and 30 7-year-olds). Children in each age group were randomly assigned to either a control task (no anchors), or to one of the two experimental tasks (i.e., the anchor system at loads of either 125g or 500g). Each participant performed six trials. The results indicated that the 7-year-old group improved postural control while using the anchor system. The 5- and 6-year-old groups deteriorated in performance while using the anchor system. We concluded that haptic perception has developmental constraints when postural perturbations require exploratory non-visual strategies.

Downloads

Published

2006-11-29

Issue

V. 11, N. 3 (2005)

Section

Original Articles

License

Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:

a) The authors assign copyright to the magazine, with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows the work to be shared with recognition of its authorship and publication in this magazine.

b) The policy adopted by the Editorial Committee is to assign copyright only after a period of 30 months from the date of publication of the article. After this time, authors interested in publishing the same text in another work must send a letter to the Editorial Committee requesting permission to transfer copyright and await a response.

c) This magazine provides public access to all its content, as this allows greater visibility and reach of published articles and reviews. For more information about this approach, visit the Public Knowledge Project, a project that developed this system to improve the academic and public quality of research, distributing OJS as well as other software to support the public access publishing system for academic sources. The names and email addresses on this site will be used exclusively for the purposes of the magazine and will not be available for other purposes. This journal provides open any other party This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License