Results are presented from a longitudinal study on the acquisition of Spanish by twin girls, one of whom was blind, the other of whom was sighted. Analyses were undertaken of the MLU of the subjects from the age of 2;5 to 3;5, and on the functional categories used by both children. The data indicate that (1) the blind girl had a slightly higher MLU than her sighted sister, and (2) the two girls exhibited differences in their pragmatic uses of language. While the blind girl used language for referring to her own actions, with more routines, calls and repetitions, the sighted child tended to use language in a way which was more bound up with external reality and social interchanges. Both children seemed to have different strategies for learning language, the blind one being closer to the Gestalt type.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Andersen, E.S., Dunlea, A. & Kekelis, L.S. (1984). Blind children's language: resolving some differences . Journal of Child Language, 11, 645-664.
2.
Barrenechea, I.L. & Schmitt, J.F. (1989). Selected pragmatic features in Spanish-speaking preschool children. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 18 (4), 353-367.
3.
Barrett, M. (1981). The communicative functions of early child language . Linguistics, 19, 273-305.
4.
Bates, E. (ed.) (1979). The Emergence of Symbols. Cognition and Communication in Infancy (New York: Academic Press).
5.
Bigelow, A. (1987). Early words of blind children. Journal of Child Language, 14, 47-56.
6.
Bigelow, A. & Bryan, A. (1982). The understanding of spatial prepositions 'in', 'on', and 'under' in blind and sighted preschool children. Paper presented at the Canadian Psychological Association Conference . Montreal.
7.
Brieland, D.M. (1950). A comparative study of the speech of blind and sighted children. Speech Monographs, 17, 93-103.
8.
Bruner, J. (1975). From communication to language - A psychological perspective. Cognition, 3, 255-287.
9.
—( 1983). Child's talk (New York: Norton).
10.
Burlinghan, D. (1961). Some notes on the development of the blind. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 26, 121-145.
11.
Civelli, E.M. (1983). Verbalism in young blind children. Journal of Visual Impairment and Blandness. February, 61-63.
12.
Clark, R.A. (1978). The transition from action to gesture. In A. Lock (ed.), Action, Gesture, and Symbol: The Emergence of Language (New York: Academic Press).
13.
Clemente, R.A. (1989). Medida del desarrollo morfosintáctico. Los problemas de la medida y utilización de la M. L. E. Anuario de Psicología , 42, 103-113.
14.
Cutsford, T.D. (1951). The Blind in School and Society ( New York: American Foundation for the Blind).
15.
Dokecki, P.R. (1966). Verbahsm and the blind: a critical review of the concept and the literature. Exceptional Children, 32, 525-530.
16.
Dore, J. (1977). 'Oh Them Sheriff': a pragmatic analysis of children's responses to questions. In S. Ervin-Tripp & C. Mitchell-Kernan (eds), Child Discourse (New York: Academic Press).
17.
—( 1978). Variation in preschool children's conversational performances . In K. Nelson (ed.), Children's Language. Vol. 1 (New York: Gardner Press).
18.
Dunlea, A. (1984). The relation between concept formation and semantic roles: some evidence from the blind. In L. Feagans, C. Garvey & R. Golinkoff (eds), The Origins and Growth of Communication (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex).
19.
Dunlea, A. (1989). Vision and the Emergence of Meaning. Blind and Sighted Children's Early Language (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
20.
Evans, C.J. & Johnson C.J. (1988). Training pragmatic language skills through alternate strategies with a blind multiply handicapped child. Jounal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, March, 109-112.
21.
Feagans, L., Robinson, J.A. & Anderson, R. (1988). Maternal attributions to a handicapped and non-handicapped twin: a longitudinal study. First Language, 8, 183-196.
22.
Fraiberg, S. & Adelson, E. (1973) Self-representation in language and play: observations of blind children. Psychoanalysis Quarterly, 42, 539-562.
23.
Fraiberg, S. (1977). Insights from the Blind (New York: Souvenir Press.)
24.
Goldfield, B.A. (1985/86). Referential and expressive language: a study of two mother-chilld dyads. First Language, 6, 119-131.
25.
Golinkoff, R. (ed.) (1983). The transition from prelinguistic to linguistic communication ( Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum).
26.
Gopmk, A. (1982). Words and plans: early language and the development of intelligent action. Journal of Child Language, 9, 303-318.
27.
— (1988). Three types of early word: the emergence of social words, names and cognitive relational words in the one-word stage and their relation to cognitive development. First Language, 8, 49-69.
28.
Halliday, M.A.K. (1975). Learning how to Mean. Explorations in the Development of Language (London: Edward Arnold ).
29.
Harley, R.K. (1963). Verbalism among Blind Children. An Investigation and Analysis (New York: American Foundation for the Blind).
30.
Karmiloff-Smith, A. (1986). Some recent issues in the study of language acquisition . In J. Lyons, R. Coates, M. Deuchar, & G Gazdar (eds), New Horizons in Linguistics 2 (Harmondsworth: Penguin).
31.
Landau, B. & Gleitman, L.R. (1985). Language and Experience. Evidence from the Blind Child (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press).
32.
Landau, B. (1983). Blind children's language is not meaningless. In A. E. Mills (ed.), Language Acquisition in the Blind Child. Normal and Deficient (London: Croom Helm).
33.
McGinnis, A.R. (1981). Functional linguistic strategies of blind children . Visual Impairment and Blindness.75, 210-214.
34.
McShane, J. (1980). Learning to Talk (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press).
35.
Miecznikowski, A. & Andersen, E. (1986). From formulaic to analysed speech: two systems or one? In J. Connor-Linton, C. J. Hall & M. McGinms (eds), Southern California Occasional Papers in Linguistics, Volume 11: Social and cognitive perpectives on language ( Los Angeles: University of Southern California Press ).
36.
Miller, J. F. (ed.) (1981). Assessing Language Production in Children. Experimental Procedures (London: Edward Arnold).
37.
Miller, J.F. & Chapman, R.S. (1985). SALT Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (University of Wisconsin).
38.
Mills, A.E. (1983). Acquisition of speech sounds in the visually-handicapped children. In A. E. Mills (ed.), Language Acquisition in the Blind Child. Normal and Deficient ( London: Croom Helm).
39.
—( 1987). Review of B. Landau & L. R. Gleitman: Language and experience. Evidence from the blind child. Journal of Child Language.14, 397-402.
40.
Mulford, R. (1983). Referential development in blind children. In A. E. Mills (ed.), Language Acquisition in the Blind Child. Normal and Deficient (London: Croom Helm).
41.
—( 1988). First words of the blind child. In M. D. Smith and J. L. Locke (eds), The Emergent Lexicon. The Child's Development of a Linguistic Vocabulary (New York: Academic Press).
42.
Nelson, K. (1973). Structure and strategy in learning to talk. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 38 (Serial No. 149).
43.
Oller, D.K. & Eilers, R.E. (1989). A natural logic of speech and speech-like acts with developmental implications. First Language, 9, 225-244.
44.
Pérez-Pereira, M. (1991). Semantic versus formal theories of language acquisition: a criticism of Mulford's study. Archives de Psychologie, 59, 3-16.
45.
Pérez-Pereira, M. & Castro, J. (1988). Fenómenos transicionales en el acceso al lenguaje . Infancia y Aprendizaje, 43, 13-36.
46.
Peters, A.M. (1977). Language learning strategies: does the whole equal the sum of the parts? Language, 3, 560-573.
47.
Siguan, M.Colomma, R. & Vila, I. (1986). Metodologia per a l'estudi del llenguatge infantil (Barcelona: Eumo Editorial).
48.
Snow, C.E. (1981). The uses of imitation. Journal of Child Language, 8, 205-212.
49.
Urwin, C. (1979). Preverbal communication and early language developments in blind children. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development , 17, 119-128.
50.
—( 1983). Dialogue and cognitive functioning in the early language development of three blind children. In A. E. Mills (ed.), Language Acquisition in the Blind Child. Normal and Deficient (London: Croom Helm).
51.
—( 1984). Communication in infancy and the emergence of language in blind children. In R. L. Schiefelbusch & J. Pickar (eds), The acquisition of communicative competence (Baltimore : University Park Press).
52.
Vila, I. (1984). El desarrollo comunicativo en los dos primeros años de vida. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. University of Barcelona, Barcelona.
53.
Wilson, B. & Peters, A.M. (1988). What are you cookin' on a hot?: movement constraints in the speech of a three-year-old blind child. Language, 64, 249-273.
