[nabs-l] developmental delay and blindness

[Michael D Ausbun]

Hello:
	First, a couple of disclaimers.
1)	No question is ever dumb.
2)	I’m not a doctor, medical or otherwise, nor is Nero cognition my area of expertise.
With that said, I would like to propose two different theories. First, I’d argue that developmental delays ought to be normal for most blind individuals. A large part of human adaptation comes from visual analysis; if we lack that capability, then adaptation is slower and thus, development is slowed. Now, with that said, I know there have been studies (at my University and probably others), in the neuroscience field, which show that other senses (smell, sound, etc.)  Produce responses within the visual cortex of blind individual’s brains (there is a gentleman from California, by the name of Brian something, who was on the discovery channel who referred to this as a form of echo location). This would expedite the development somewhat I’d think, but not to the same degree.
	My second theory is that people are more inclined to label visually challenged individuals as developmentally delayed, in order to explain the inability to grasp certain things (personally, I’d argue this is ablest in nature). What I mean is, if a blind person does not receive tactile representations of inherently visual things, but a person expects them to know what it is (I.E. a round-Square), they might decide that person is merely developmentally delayed. 
	I don’t know if either theory is accurate, perhaps Arielle or someone with a little more relevant expertise might be able to give you a better answer.
Respectfully,
Michael Ausbun

________________________________________
From: nabs-l [nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] on behalf of Andrew via nabs-l [nabs-l at nfbnet.org]
Sent: Monday, December 29, 2014 11:46 AM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nabs-l] developmental delay and blindness

Hi all
have a rather dumb question.   Is developmental delay quite common
amung blind people or is it not that common the person who  works with
just disability people over all said i have a slight developmental
delay  that is why i am asking.  like they re fer to her as a doctor
so and so but not really medical doctor though. but anyway is this a
common thing?

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