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Published on: November 14, 2018
How Children with Congenital Limb Deficiencies Visually Attend to Their Limbs and Prostheses: Eye Tracking of
Hiroshi Mano1,2, Sayaka Fujiwara1, Nobuhiko Haga1
1Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
Insights
Children with congenital limb differences visually attend to their affected limbs similarly to peers. Visual prompts to focus on limbs were ineffective, suggesting alternative methods for enhancing body knowledge.
Area of Science:
- Developmental psychology
- Pediatric orthopedics
- Human-computer interaction
Background:
- Congenital limb deficiencies affect body representation and self-perception.
- Understanding visual attention patterns is crucial for developing effective interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate visual attention to limbs and prostheses in children with congenital limb deficiencies.
- To compare attention patterns with typically developing children.
Main Methods:
- Eye-tracking technology was used to measure visual attention in children viewing images of themselves.
- Participants included children with upper limb deficiency, lower limb deficiency, and a control group.
Main Results:
- Children with limb deficiencies attended to their affected limbs as much as or more than control children.
- Visual attention prompts showed limited success in directing focus to the limbs.
Conclusions:
- Visual attention alone may not be sufficient to improve body knowledge in children with limb differences.
- Alternative strategies, such as enhancing linguistic understanding, may be more beneficial.
Abstract:
Purpose: This study aimed to clarify how children with congenital limb deficiencies visually attend to their bodies, particularly their limbs and prostheses.Methods: Participants included children with and without congenital limb deficiencies. They were shown photographs of themselves and their visual attention was measured using an eye tracker.Results: Six children with lower limb deficiencies (age [mean ± SD]: 8.8 ± 2.9; 2 girls and 4 boys), six children with upper limb deficiencies (age: 7.0 ± 2.3; 2 girls and 4 boys), and ten control children (age: 7.7 ± 1.9; 5 girls and 5 boys) were included. Children with congenital upper/lower limb deficiencies looked at their upper/lower limbs as often or more than the control children. Prompts to direct their visual attention to their limbs had limited efficacy.Conclusions: To improve the body knowledge of limbs, approaches other than visual recognition prompting, such as improving linguistic understanding, might be considered.
