Mental Imagery in Congenitally Blind Children

Abstract

Ten totally and congenitally blind children, aged 3–9, and a matching group of 10 sighted children were asked to describe, first from memory and then through tactual exploration, selected common objects. The aim was to examine the children's mental representation of the objects. Through a statistical and qualitative analysis of the number and types of attributes that the children assigned to the objects, the author was able to compare the similarities and differences between the blind children's tactually based conceptualization of objects and the sighted children's visually guided conceptualization. The findings led to conclusions about the nature and development of language in blind children, the educational needs of congenitally blind children, and the common linguistic experiences of blind and sighted children.