title: Early social-emotional development in blind infants.
abstract: In order to study the impact of blindness on social and emotional development during the first year of life, the level of social-emotional development was compared in blind and sighted 9- and 12-month-old infants. The five 9-month-old and the 17 12-month-old blind infants were completely blind from birth and exhibited no further serious disabilities. Social-emotional development was assessed with a scale from the Bielefeld Developmental Test for Blind Infants and Preschoolers containing three subscales on emotions, social interaction and impulse control. Compared to non-disabled infants, blind infants exhibited a more limited repertoire of facial expressions and less responsiveness. They less frequently attempted to initiate contact with their mothers (self-initiated interactions) or comply with simple requests and prohibitions than sighted infants. These differences in the social-emotional development of blind and sighted infants are traced back to the effects of blindness on the mother-child interaction. The lack of visual perception appears to impede particularly the acquisition of a dialogue concept.
authors.affiliation: University of Bielefeld, Faculty of Psychology and Sport Science, Germany.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tröster
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brambring
mesh_terms: D001766:Blindness / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003142:Communication; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D014796:Visual Perception