COMPARISON OF HAND PREFERENCE MODELS FOR BLIND AND SIGHTED CHILDREN

Two groups of children aged 6 to 13, composed of 55 congenitally blind and 64 sighted subjects, were observed in a manual preference test. T he activities which strongly differentiate handedness in both groups a ppeared to be transitive and body oriented, instrumental manipulations and graphical actions. However, bringing the hand to the mouth, pouri ng and prehension in blind, and pointing in sighted did not differenti ate handedness as well. The role of visual deprivation in hand prefere nce orientation is discussed.