Doing language: Embodiment and language development in blind impaired children

This literature review focuses on language development of blind children. The perspective on development is given by co-regulation and embodiment. Language develops through mutual and bodily interactions with caretakers. These interactions take place and have meaning in a concrete context, which is important in the creation of knowledge and understanding of the world. This is a continuous and multi-modal process that is regulated by both child and caretaker, and influences both of them as well. The child constantly tries to attune to the social and material environment, simultaneously with multiple sensory modalities in a mutually coupled and structural way. These interactions are different between blind and normally sighted children, which obviously has consequences for language development. For blind children language ultimately becomes an important ‘instrument’ for social as well as physical contact. Language contact with others enables the child to discover the structure of the environment, and through that they learn to understand the world and, more importantly, to stay in touch with it