The role of repeated and echoed utterances in communication with a blind child

Blind children have been observed to have a tendency towards a superficial fluency in language with much repetition of inappropriate phrases. Conversations with a three year old blind child are recorded and analysed according to the function of the utterances. (e.g. question, comments) and the originality of the utterance (e.g. repeated, echoed). Communicative styles varied but echoing constituted a substantial proportion of Betty's utterances. On examination these were found to have significant communicative value and were not inappropriate. The implications of this finding for promoting blind children's language are discussed.