Descriptive and comparative study of parameters from interactions between mother and blind child

Abstract

Background: Systematic studies of language acquisition skills in blind children, especially in subjects younger than 3 years old (“babies”) are quite scarce. Standard observational and analytical scales would allow this interesting issue to be effectively analyzed and compared to data from different groups abroad. Objective: the present study aims to investigate the interactions between blind infants and their mothers, focusing upon the repercussions for language acquisition. Material and Methods: The study describes a comparative and qualitative evaluation through films registers with duration of 20 min under standard observational protocol, comparing the interaction of sighted mothers and its respective blind or sighted children matched by age and social status. 86 partially sighted children had been excluded. Results: A wide variety of observational and qualitative differences are apparent among the two groups, but only two features were considered statistically different: The children had trouble localizing objects indirectly (periphery view) and in any other position. Conclusion: Several differences between blind babies and healthy ones were evident, but further analysis are necessary. It would be particularly helpful to have a larger sample population and more sensitive observational tools since several of the observed differences could not be evaluated by the available protocol. Hopefully, this approach will contribute to improvement of medical support for blind infants.