and Visually Impaired

This literature review examines the development and early language acquisition of infants with blindness or visual impairments. The paper begins with a history of public perceptions of individuals with visual disabilities, efforts to develop educational programs for them, and legislation supporting these efforts. Review of the literature on early development of infants with blindness or visual impairments discusses parent-child interaction, the language of the hands of blind children, play behavior, object permanence, motor development, and "blindisms"--i.e., specific behaviors that most blind children exhibit. A section on language development compares blind and visually impaired children with sighted children in terms of language acquisition. It compares the two groups ' first words, understanding of the words "look " and "see, " stereotypic speech, verbalisms, and literacy. The review then outlines common eye problems that cause learning problems and are often undetected. It examines the issues of least restrictive environment and mainstreaming. The final section offers guidelines for parents and for teachers working with students who are blind or visually impaired. (Contains 25 references.) (JDD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. k)