blind babies
A playmobile is a composite of toys which aims to provide an enriched environment for a congenitally blind infant and to encourage active exploration. Anna Sokolov trained in industrial design and her MA thesis was based on designing such a palymobile. The design was based on the principles Cathy Urwin had found and explored in her PhD thesis (see 'blind chuildren and language'). It was tested on six children, aged 6-19 months, in... more
Although there has been surprisingly little systematic research into language development in blind children, what evidence there is suggests that language problems of various kinds are common amongst the blind child population, and that relative delays and language difficulties are particularly marked in the early stages (see Urwin, 1979). This is in line with what one might expect from the sighted child literature. More specifically, this... more
