Natural history museums with their huge collections and exhibits seem to be particularly well suited to create an understanding and awareness of biodiversity. Mounted specimens are typical learning objects in natural history museums. The visual sense obviously plays a role here, but the haptic exploration of certain elements can also be conducive…

Infants experience language in rich multisensory environments. For example, they may first be exposed to the word applesauce while touching, tasting, smelling, and seeing applesauce. In three experiments using different methods we asked whether the number of distinct senses linked with the semantic features of objects would impact word recognition…

The present study examined the links between haptic word processing speed, vocabulary, and inhibitory control among bilingual children. Three main hypotheses were tested: faster haptic processing speed, measured by the Computerized Comprehension Task at age 1;11, would be associated with larger concurrent vocabulary and greater longitudinal…

Background: Touch has emerged as a social taboo rather than as an educational tool among sport pedagogues, especially in the #MeToo era. Believing that minimising physical contact will protect themselves from sexual allegations, instructors (coaches and PE teachers) are increasingly opting for hands-off practices, which transforms sport into a…

The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe tactile exploratory behaviours and strategies applied by students with deafblindness when they actively explore objects by touch in terms of their texture and weight. For the needs of the present study, a Delphi consultation methodology was applied by the authors and special education…

The advent of advanced technology has opened new horizons for studying collaborative learning, although ambiguity remains in the classification and rationale for combining modalities in multimodal collaboration analytics (MMCA). Addressing this gap is crucial for the progression of collaborative learning practices and research. This review…

Given the inclusion of sensory reactivity as a diagnostic criterion for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the theorized etiological role of sensory reactivity in the development of autism, adequate sensory measures of sensory reactivity in autism, including measures extending to use in infancy, are needed. Adequate sensory measurement relies on…

The present work reviews and summarizes results of tracing studies up to the present and collects different explanations for found effects of pointing and tracing while learning as an effective touch-based action method. Two explanations are focused finally in order to test them in the presented eye-tracking study. The study (N = 90) with a…

Sensory learning can be traced back to ancient Greek times, and the sense of touch holds multiple types of benefits for classroom music learning. Touch is also a prerequisite for children's future intellectual and social development. Between ages three and seven, a child's physical and perceptual development is in a formational stage. Despite…

Tactile defensiveness in autistic individuals is the least investigated sensory modality. The current multi-component, explorative study aimed to understand the experiences of ten autistic adults regarding tactile defensiveness and fabrics, using semi-structured, one-to-one interviews. Participants were asked to discuss the effects of seven…

The present study examined whether scaling direction and perceptual modality affect children's spatial scaling. Children aged 6-8 years (N = 201) were assigned to a visual, visuo-haptic, and haptic condition in which they were presented with colourful, embossed graphics. In the haptic condition, they were asked to wear a blindfold during the test…

Touch is an extraordinary sensory, communicative, and affective experience that has cascading positive effects on infants' socio-emotional development and neurobiological functioning. This study aims to explore whether maternal touch can influence infants' well-known attentional biases toward fearful facial expressions. Visual behaviour of…

The plastination technique produces non-toxic human tissues, ensuring their safe handling in educational settings. This investigation aimed to understand if visually impaired students profit from the use of plastinated anatomical specimens in learning the anatomy of the nervous system. For this purpose, their learning performance was compared to…

The article presents an investigation conducted with education students at the Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana. The aim was to determine whether the perception and image of urban space have changed over the years, as the same questionnaire was used in 2001 and 2019. The students had to choose which of the eleven questions contained…

Sensory differences are highly prevalent in autistic individuals. However, few studies have compared their presentation between autistic males and autistic females. We used psychophysics to assess and compare tactile perceptual sensitivity between autistic and non-autistic boys and girls aged between 8 and 12 years of age. While there were…