[nabs-l] developmental delay and blindness

[Arielle Silverman]

Hi Andrew and all,
Great question. First let's define developmental delay. Typically this
term means that a  young child achieves certain milestones like
crawling, walking, talking or socializing later in life than the
"average" child. Obviously there is a  huge range as far as how old
children are when they achieve milestones, but it is possible to
calculate average ages and label a child as developmentally delayed if
they deviate far from the average. Having a developmental delay as a
child does not necessarily mean one is less successful as an adult.
For example, I have heard that Albert Einstein did not speak until he
was 4, while most children start speaking between about 9 and 18
months. Einstein was developmentally delayed, but obviously
successful.
It is fair to say that many blind children show developmental delays.
However, the cause is hard to identify because most blind children
have neurological impairments in addition to blindness, and
neurological impairments also cause delays. Oftentimes blindness is
caused by premature birth or a syndrome that also causes other
disabilities, and these other disabilities may not be diagnosed right
away. Some researchers have argued that even kids who are blind with
no known disabilities tend to be delayed in crawling and walking. This
issue does not affect every blind child however. Sighted babies move
about in response to things they see and vision has a lot of nice
properties. For example, a sighted baby can stare at a toy for a long
time and then decide to reach for it. A blind baby might hear a sound,
but if that sound comes and goes, the baby may not realize the sound
is coming from an actual object. Blind babies who are exposed to a
lot of items that make noise or that they can touch are less likely to
have developmental delays. It concerns me when people automatically
assume a delay is "normal" for a blind child because they may then not
encourage the child to explore their world or make as much effort to
expose them to new experiences. Such an assumption might also lead
parents or doctors to not look for other medical conditions that could
be causing the delay. As Michael said, this assumption is ablest. In
short, I would posit that if blind kids are at risk for delays, this
is not because of blindness but because the environment they are in
doesn't offer enough accessible experiences (like with  objects they
can touch or that make continuous sounds) to aid their development.
Arielle

On 12/29/14, Andrew via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi Michael thank you for your note   it is a great topic by the way  I
> will be looking forward to hearing the other's views on this.
>
> On 12/29/14, Michael D Ausbun <mausbun at unr.edu> wrote:
>> 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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