The Association between Tactile, Motor and Cognitive Capacities and Braille Reading Performance: A Scoping Review of Primary Evidence to Advance Research on Braille and Aging

We reviewed eighty-five years of braille research. Almost none of it studied the older adults who are now most likely to request education and rehabilitation services related to reading difficulties, including braille instruction.

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This is an audio summary of the article, The association between tactile, motor and cognitive capacities and braille reading performance: a scoping review of primary evidence to advance research on braille and aging, published in Disability and Rehabilitation in 2022.

The Association between Tactile, Motor and Cognitive Capacities and Braille Reading Performance: A Scoping Review of Primary Evidence to Advance Research on Braille and Aging

Why does this study matter?

Among many other things, braille reading draws on touch, on hand movements, and on memory and attention. All of these change as we get older. More people now experience sight loss later in life. We need to better understand how aging might play a role in braille instruction and, based on this, how to best support older learners of braille.

What did we ask?

We wanted to know three things. First, what research already exists on how touch, hand movement and working-memory skills relate to braille reading abilities. Second, which kind of tests researchers have used to measure those skills in braille readers. Third, how much attention that research has paid to age.

Who took part?

We reviewed studies that other researchers had already published. We searched four research databases and one specialist journal for anything about braille. That gave us roughly two thousand four hundred articles. We kept only studies that measured touch, hand movement or cognitive skills and linked them to braille reading. Thirty-six articles met our criteria, reporting forty separate studies. They were published between 1934 and 2019.

What did we do?

Two of us screened every article separately and then compared our decisions. We sorted each study by which capacity it examined. We recorded which test was used each time. We also recorded the ages of the people who took part, and whether each study considered age at all.

What we found

Most of this research is about hands. Twenty-five studies looked at hand movement, fifteen at touch, and only five at cognitive skills (like memory abilities) during braille reading. Two-handed reading, where both hands are used to read a line together, was consistently linked to faster braille reading. Measurement was the bigger problem. Researchers used nineteen different instruments to measure touch abilities alone, and only six of those appeared in more than one study. That makes results hard to compare. It also explains why studies of the same skill often disagree with each other. Not one study measured all three capacities in the same group of people. And the research is about the young. Only thirteen of the forty studies included anyone over sixty, but these were typically long-time braille readers rather than later in life learners.

What this could mean

For braille literacy teachers and rehabilitation professionals, the message is to build good touch skills and two-handed reading habits early. A single touch test should not decide whether an older person can learn braille. The tests disagree with each other, and most have been used only once. For researchers, the gap is plain. We do not know how age-related changes in hand movement or memory affect braille reading. More research is needed to explore the abilities of older braille learners, and the best assessment and instructional strategies that should be used to support them.

What happens next?

We need studies that measure touch, hand movement and cognitive skills (like memory and attention) together in the same people. That work should span a wide range of ages. We also need to know which tests are reliable enough to help guide instructional decisions. And we need to look beyond aging, at the shortage of braille literacy teachers for adults and the funding rules that decide who has access to braille instruction and tools later in life.

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Why does this study matter?

Among many other things, braille reading draws on touch, on hand movements, and on memory and attention. All of these change as we get older. More people now experience sight loss later in life. We need to better understand how aging might play a role in braille instruction and, based on this, how to best support older learners of braille.

What did we ask?

We wanted to know three things. First, what research already exists on how touch, hand movement and working-memory skills relate to braille reading abilities. Second, which kind of tests researchers have used to measure those skills in braille readers. Third, how much attention that research has paid to age.

Who took part?

We reviewed studies that other researchers had already published. We searched four research databases and one specialist journal for anything about braille. That gave us roughly two thousand four hundred articles. We kept only studies that measured touch, hand movement or cognitive skills and linked them to braille reading. Thirty-six articles met our criteria, reporting forty separate studies. They were published between 1934 and 2019.

What did we do?

Two of us screened every article separately and then compared our decisions. We sorted each study by which capacity it examined. We recorded which test was used each time. We also recorded the ages of the people who took part, and whether each study considered age at all.

What we found

Most of this research is about hands. Twenty-five studies looked at hand movement, fifteen at touch, and only five at cognitive skills (like memory abilities) during braille reading. Two-handed reading, where both hands are used to read a line together, was consistently linked to faster braille reading. Measurement was the bigger problem. Researchers used nineteen different instruments to measure touch abilities alone, and only six of those appeared in more than one study. That makes results hard to compare. It also explains why studies of the same skill often disagree with each other. Not one study measured all three capacities in the same group of people. And the research is about the young. Only thirteen of the forty studies included anyone over sixty, but these were typically long-time braille readers rather than later in life learners.

What this could mean

For braille literacy teachers and rehabilitation professionals, the message is to build good touch skills and two-handed reading habits early. A single touch test should not decide whether an older person can learn braille. The tests disagree with each other, and most have been used only once. For researchers, the gap is plain. We do not know how age-related changes in hand movement or memory affect braille reading. More research is needed to explore the abilities of older braille learners, and the best assessment and instructional strategies that should be used to support them.

What happens next?

We need studies that measure touch, hand movement and cognitive skills (like memory and attention) together in the same people. That work should span a wide range of ages. We also need to know which tests are reliable enough to help guide instructional decisions. And we need to look beyond aging, at the shortage of braille literacy teachers for adults and the funding rules that decide who has access to braille instruction and tools later in life.