Abstract
It was our intention to present here a few of the observations which we have made in our intensive work with blind young children and their parents. These observations have been amplified and verified by an intensive exchange of self-observations, communicated freely among our staff members. Our observations should not be generalized. We are far from stating: “This is how all parents of blind children react.” There is no such thing as a common or “general” reaction. There are many, and they exist in various degrees. We have singled out two of them, denial and infantilization, and have described experiences from our everyday dealings and from our awareness that in our teamwork of nursery school teachers, social workers, speech teachers, pediatricians, psychologists and psychiatrists, most of our work is devoted not only to blindness but to the reactions which blindness creates in those afflicted by it and those who are close to the upbringing of the blind child.
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