Language Acquisition in the Blind Child

Originally published in 1983, the papers in this volume were first presented at an international symposium "The Development of Language and Communication in the Blind Child" held in 1981 in Germany. The topic although specialized, had importance within several disciplines. Contributions came from the fields of education and medicine as well as psychology and linguistics. In bringing these researchers together the aim was not only to pool results but to encourage inter-disciplinary cooperation, thus giving work in this area a broader and sounder theoretical basis. Today it can be read in its historical context.

Anne E. Mills (now Baker) is professor extraordinary in the Linguistics Department of Stellenbosch University and emerita professor from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Her specializations are the linguistics of sign languages, and language acquisition and pathology. She, currently supervises Masters and PhD theses in sign linguistics and does research into South African Sign Language.

Tables and Figures. Preface. Notes on Contributors. 1. Precursors of Early Language Development in Children Blind from Birth Edna Adelson 2. Precursors and the Study of the Impaired Language Learner Henning Wode 3. Abnormalities in the Verbal Communication of Visually-Impaired Children Walter Elstner 4. Speech Therapy for the Blind Chris Schaner-Wolles 5. Acquisition of Speech Sounds in the Visually-Handicapped Child Anne E. Mills 6. The Visual and Auditory Modalities in Phonological Acquisition Barbara Dodd 7. Blind Children's Language is Not "Meaningless" Barbara Landau 8. Meaning in Language Acquisition Paul Werth 9. Referential Development in Blind Children Randa Mulford 10. Effectance Motivation and the Development of Communicative Competence in Blind and Sighted Children Harry McGurk 11. Patterns of Interaction between Three Blind Infants and Their Mothers Charity Rowland 12. Cognition, Interaction, and Development, with Special Reference to the Education of the Handicapped Child Ton van der Geest 13. Dialogue and Cognitive Functioning in the Early Language Development of Three Blind Children Cathy Urwin 14. The Investigation of Vision in Language Development Michael Garman 15. Language and Active Touch: Some Aspects of Reading and Writing by Blind Children Susanne Millar 16. The Implication of Research Findings on Blind Children for Semantic Theories and for Intervention Programmes Richard F. Cromer. References. Author Index. Subject Index.