An Assessment of the Effectiveness of Roadside Instruction in Teaching Children with Visual Impairments Street Crossings

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of verbal rehearsal and graduated guidance as methods of teaching participants who were blind the chained behavior of street crossing. The participants ranged from 13 years to 20 years and had light perception or less in both eyes. Using a multiple probe design across participants and replicated across settings (intersections) with staggered entry of participants, individuals learned to cross 1 or 2 intersections. Maintenance was assessed. Generalization also was assessed at a third intersection. Additionally, all participants completed psychophysical tests in an anechoic chamber to measure their ability to detect gaps in traffic and align to perpendicular car sounds. Visual analysis of graphed data indicated that verbal rehearsal and graduated guidance were effective for all participants who received instruction. All participants who received instruction maintained at levels substantially above baseline and generalized the majority of skills to the third intersection where they did not receive instruction. All participants performed poorly on the gap detection task in the anechoic chamber; only one participant substantially improved after instruction on the alignment task.