Abstract
Severely quadraplegic cerebral-palsied children suffer profound deprivation of early sensorimotor experiences considered by Piagetian theory as critical to the development of cognitive structures. In the present study, 34 children quadraplegic from birth, ranging in age from 9 months to 12 years, were tested for level of object permanence which, according to Piaget, signals the emergence of mental representation. Sixteen demonstrated high levels of object permanence. Severity of physical handicap accounted for less than 15% of the variation in scores. With severity held constant, mental age explained 25% of the variance. These results indicate that early cognitive milestones can be achieved by children severely physically handicapped since birth and that general intellectual level may be more important than severity of the motor handicap in determining such achievement.
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This study is part of a larger research project conceived and carried out between 1974 and 1976, during a two-year NIMH postdoctoral research fellowship (#5 F22 MH 0279002), New York University Medical Center, in New York City, under the direction of Leonard Diller, Ph.D. After termination of the fellowship, the data analysis was performed at Columbia University Computer Center, and was supported by the Epidemiology of Mental Disorders Research Department, Psychiatric Institute, under the direction of Elmer Struening. I am very grateful to Dr. Struening, for his generous support and direction of the statistical treatment of the data, and to Drs. Barry I. Milcarek and Bruce Link for their assistance in computer programming. I also wish to express my appreciation to the directors, teachers, and children of the United Cerebral Palsy Schools for their interest and splendid cooperation during the two years of testing at these centers.
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Eagle, R.S. Deprivation of early sensorimotor experience and cognition in the severely involved cerebral-palsied child. J Autism Dev Disord 15, 269–283 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01531498
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01531498