なぜ「金」なのか—ある視覚障害を伴う発達遅滞児が目を向ける対象の探求

Why "golden color"? : Research on objects which a developmentally retarded child with visual deficit turns his eyes to

要旨：視覚障害を伴う発達遅滞児YNが，「金色」の対象にだけは目を向けたという印象を手がかりに，その「金色の意味」と，他にも目を向ける対象があるかを探り，そこでの所見を遊びへの発展に役立てることができるかを検討した．11ヵ月の間に7つの実験を行い，その結果，YNは金色以外にも，水玉模様，格子縞模様，ある種の錯視図形などに視覚反応を示すことを見出した．ここから，「YNは視野全体にキラキラするような感じが広がっているものに目を向ける」，「その視覚受容は周辺視で起こる」との仮説が導かれた．この仮説の前半は，6つの遊びを用いた実験により支持されることがわかった．

　One day, before this research, we came to have a professional impression that a developmentally retarded child, YN, who also suffers from visual deficit, might have been turning his eyes only to goldencolored objects through daily activities. Based on this impression, we researched "what effects golden color brought to the child" and also researched whether the child would turn his eyes to other colors. We gathered some findings through this research, and then we also examined whether the findings could be used for the development of the child's play.

　We performed seven kinds of experiments in eleven months. As a result, we found that YN showed a visual reaction to colors or patterns other than golden color including polka dotted patterns, checked patterns and certain types of illusionary figures. This finding led us to the following hypothesis : "YN turns his eyes to objects which appear to be flickering within his whole visual field," and "the visual reception of the flickering objects happens within his peripheral vision". We also found that the first hypothesis was supported by the result of an experiment we performed by the use of six types of plays.