Perceptual Disorders

Abstract

Teachers characteristically have directed their pupils to “pay attention” or “settle down and concentrate” when they have wished to communicate a new idea or concept. The simplistic implication is that if the pupil pays attention to the statements of the teacher (that is, opens up his receptive apparatus in some unexplained way) he will learn. Unfortunately the process of learning is not that simple.

... the input is never into a quiescent or static system, but always into a system which is already actively excited and organized. In the intact organism, behavior is the result of interaction of this background of excitation with input from any designated stimulus. Only when we can state the general characteristics of this background of excitation, can we understand the effects of a given input.

Karl S. Lashley, The Hixon Symposium (1948)

The education of children with perceptual handicaps... is the most technical of all aspects of teaching. It cannot be taken for granted that any teacher can teach these children on the basis of the usual teacher preparation or special education teacher preparation programs. Teachers of children with perceptual developmental problems must be skilled diagnostic and educational technologists as well as excellent teachers.

William M. Cruickshank (1975)