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The Tactual Profile: Development of a procedure to assess the tactual functioning of children who are blind

Royal Visio, National Foundation for the Visually Impaired and Blind, Huizen, The Netherlands, answithagen{at}visio.org

Mathijs P.J. Vervloed

Behavioural Science Institute, Department of Special Education, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Neeltje M. Janssen

Royal Visio, National Foundation for the Visually Impaired and Blind, Huizen, The Netherlands

Harry Knoors

Behavioural Science Institute, Department of Special Education, Radboud University Nijmegen and Royal Effatha Guyot Viataal Group, Sint Michielsgestel, The Netherlands

Ludo Verhoeven

Behavioural Science Institute, Department of Special Education, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands

The Tactual Profile assesses tactual functioning of children with severe visual impairments between 0 and 16 years of age. The Tactual Profile consists of 430 items, measuring tactile skills required for performing everyday tasks at home and in school. Items are graded according to age level and divided into three domains: tactual sensory, tactual motor and tactual perceptual. The development of the instrument is described and the psychometric properties that were studied reported. Most items had an acceptable difficulty level, and test—retest reliability proved to be good. The analyses for the construct validity showed moderately high correlations between the Tactual Profile and intelligence tests. These correlations were higher for the haptic performance subtests than for the verbal tests. High correlations with other haptic tests were found. However, these associations disappeared after factoring out intelligence, possibly because current methods for examining tactual functioning are strongly affected by intelligence. A summary of work planned in further development of the procedure is provided.

Key Words: blindness • children • haptics • reliability • tactual functioning • touch

British Journal of Visual Impairment, Vol. 27, No. 3, 221-238 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0264619609106362


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