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Concept Formation And Development In The Congenitally Blind Child, Kimberly J. Franco

Honors Theses

T.D. Cutsforth once stated that "no single mental activity of the congenitally blind child is not distorted by the absence of sight." Blindness permeates the intellectual functioning of language, thought, comprehension and conceptualization. Ultimately, the child lacking vision will both understand and respond to the world in a manner unlike that of a sighted child. This incongruous interaction breeds frustration since the blind are a minority in a world which concentrates on the characteristics, needs, behaviors, and accomplishments of sighted individuals. Lacking the visual modality, the blind rely on the information about the objective world which they receive from people …