Preverbal Communication and Early Language Development in Blind Children

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 suggests that blind children might be delayed in first beginning to use language, and/or show restrictions in both the semantic content of their utterances and in the communicative intentions which they express. But it may be less than useful to assume that developmental delays are inevitable. Nor are the uses which sighted children find for speech necessarily the most appropriate guidelines for monitoring the progress of the child who cannot see. It is possible that blind children may discover functions for language which are less necessary to sighted children, and that this may have important implications for the language acquisition process.