Reaching for sound-producing and silent objects was assessed in seven infants who had been blind from birth. Objects were presented while they were in tactile contact with their bodies, immediately after withdrawal, or without prior contact. The study found that sound elicited reaching earlier than did antecedent tactile contact. These findings are compared with those of previous studies.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BigelowA. E. (1986). The development of reaching in blind children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 4, 355–366.
2.
BrambringM. (1996). Early intervention with blind children: Main findings of the Bielefeld longitudinal study. In BrambringM., RauH., & BeelmannA. (Eds.). Early childhood intervention: Theory, evaluation and practice (pp. 419–435). Berlin: de Gruyter.
3.
BrambringM. (2006a). Divergent development of gross motor skills in children who are blind or sighted. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 100, 620–634.
4.
BrambringM. (2006b). Early intervention with infants and preschoolers who are blind. Bielefeld Observation Scales (BOS-BLIND). Two volumes: Manual and scales (J. Harrow, Trans.). Wurzburg, Germany: Edition Bentheim. (Original German version published 1999.)
5.
BrambringM. (2007). Divergent development of manual skills in children who are blind or sighted. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 101, 212–225.
6.
FazziE., LannersJ., Ferrari-GinevraO., AchilleC., LupariaA., SignoriniS., & LanziG. (2002). Gross motor development and reach on sound as critical tools for the development of the blind child. Brain and Development, 24, 269–275.
7.
FraibergS. (1968). Parallel and divergent patterns in blind and sighted infants. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 23, 264–300.
8.
FraibergS. (1977). Insights from the blind: Comparative studies of blind and sighted infants.New York: Basic Books.
9.
FraibergS., & FreedmanD. (1964). Studies of the ego development of the congenitally blind child. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 193, 113–169.
10.
FraibergS., SiegelB., & GibsonR. (1966). The role of sound in the search behavior of a blind infant. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 21, 327–357.
11.
MillarS. (1994). Understanding and representing space: Theory and evidence from studies with blind and sighted children.Oxford, England: Clarendon Press.
12.
MillarS. (1995). Understanding and representing spatial information. British Journal of Visual Impairment, 13, 8–11.
13.
NorrisM., SpauldingP., & BrodieF. (1957). Blindness in children.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
14.
PiagetJ. (1954). The construction of reality in the child.New York: Basic Books.
15.
RochatP. (1992). Self-sitting and reaching in 5- to 8-month-old infants: The impact of posture and its development on early eye-hand coordination. Journal of Motor Behavior, 24, 210–220.
16.
RochatP., & GoubetN. (1995). Development of sitting and reaching in 5- to 6-month-old infants. Infant Behavior and Development, 18, 53–68.
17.
RossS., & TobinM. J. (1997). Object permanence, reaching, and locomotion in infants who are blind. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 91, 25–32.
18.
SchwartzM. (1984). The role of sound for space and object perception in the congenitally blind infant. In LipsittL. P., & Rovee-CollierC. (Eds.), Advances in infancy research (pp. 23–56). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
19.
SpencerJ. P., VereijkenB., DiedrichF. J., & ThelenE. (2000). Posture and the emergence of manual skills. Developmental Science, 3, 216–233.
20.
ThelenE., & SmithL. B. (1994). A dynamic systems approach to the development of cognition and action.Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
21.
TroesterH., & BrambringM. (1993). Early motor development in blind infants. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 14, 83–106.
22.
von HofstenC. (1979). Development of visually directed reaching: The approach phase. Journal of Human Movement Studies, 5, 160–168.
23.
von HofstenC. (1991). Structuring of early reaching movements: A longitudinal study. Journal of Motor Behavior, 23, 280–292.
24.
von HofstenC., & RönnqvistL. (1988). Preparation for grasping an object: A developmental study. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 14, 610–621.
