The Development of Object Play and Classificatory Skills in a Blind Child

Two aspects of the cognitive development of a 14-to-18-month-old blind child are reported: the development of procedures for the intentional control of objects and the development of certain classificatory skills. The longitudinal data revealed two developmental processes. The first is that a blind baby learns to control objects by devising a strategy involving the simultaneous use of two objects, one in each hand. In addition, since the child showed no preference for sound-making objects, it is argued that manual control is essential for the development of information about objects. The second is a trend in the development of classification, from grouping objects according to their differences to grouping objects based on their similarities. It was found that development of classification in the blind child paralleled that of sighted children studied in other research, with blind children displaying only a slight developmental lag.