• The Journal of Korean Academy of Sensory Integration
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.66-79
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• 2017

Objective : The purpose of this study is investigate the effects of sensory integration combined with auditory treatment on the sensory processing, visual perception and attention ability of children with developmental delay. Methods : A combined treatment of auditory training and sensory integration therapy was implemented to 3 children aged 4 to 7 and diagnosed with developmental delay during 9 weeks period from December 2016 to January 2017. ABA' design which is one of single subject research designs was used in this study. Baseline A had 4 sessions, intervention B had 15 sessions, and baseline A' had 4 sessions, so 23 sessions were applied in total. During the baseline A and A 'periods, visual perception ability was measured by K-DTVP-2 (Korea Developmental Test Visual Perception-2) and sensory processing ability was evaluated by sensory profile. The maintenance time of attention was measured with the absence of intervention for the baseline period, and for the intervention period, it was measured at 10 minutes break time which was provided after the intervention. The children's attention time during a fine motor task provided were measured using video recorder with the interval recording method, and the interval for the evaluation was 30 seconds. Results : No statistically significant difference were found in the visual perception function and sensory processing scores before and after treatment. Attention of participant A enhanced significantly while that of participant B and C did not improve significantly. Conclusion : It is hard to conclude that sensory integration therapy combined with auditory perception training has positive effects on visual perception function and attention of children with developmental delays. However, there were significant increase in attention and improvements in behavior related to sensory processing for some cases in this study. In further study, longer intervention periods and valid measurement need to be applied in order to get better results. And it is proposed that more studies need to be done to enhance evidence of auditory perception training as a mean to facilitate attention and to prepare learning.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.22 no.3 s.27
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• pp.368-379
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• 1989

The relationship between mercury level of hair and mental retardation was investigated. The 297 subjects with mental retardation were drawn from two schools providing special educational services, one, consisted of children living in an orphan home, another, children with parents. The 117 centre] subjects were drawn from whom had got average or above average academic achivement in a regular elementary school. Hair sample were taken from the nape of the neck and the mercury analysis was carried out on an atomic absorption spectrophotometer(IL 551). There was no relationship between mercury contents and age, and there was a statistically significant difference in mercury contents between male and female in the mentally retarded children living with parents. Children in the retarded group had significantly higher mercury contents compared with control group except the female group with parents. Also, the mercury levels in the retarded group living in an orphan home were significantly higher than that of the retarded group with parents. The concomitant diseases were Down's syndrome, epilepsy, cerebral palsy and autism. There were statistically significant differences in hair mercury levels in the cases of accompanying Down's syndrome and cerebral palsy in male and Down's syndrome and autism in female compared with the control group of the same sex. The most accompanying handicap was speech disturbance(40.7%) and the others were crippled, emotional disturbance etc. The percentages of double handicap were 66.7% among 6 persons exceeding 6ppm of their hair mercury contents. 10.4% among $3{\sim}6$ ppm and 15.7% among the group of 3ppm or less. The findings of this study suggest that the more opportunities of exposure to mercury in mentally retarded children may have occurred, so it can not be excluded the possibility of mercury as a contributing factor to mental retardation. Therefore, the causal relationship between mercury levels and mental retardation should be established through the examinations about their living environments, dietary pattern, eating habit etc.