Although this book is about early language development in blind children, it provides rich insight into paradigmatic limitations of current research on motor and cognitive development. The book presents an exhaustive history of research on blind children's development and a clear and thorough discussion of major theoretical claims in the field, as well as supporting and conflicting evidence. The methodological critique of research on blind children development in general and language development in particular is extremely thoughtful. On the other hand, we are disappointed with the field itself, a disappointment it seems, at least in part, that the authors share. We even found that the authors' methodological critique is much ahead of (and at times on odds with) their own research, as that research is reported in the book.
The book is organized around two intertwining narrative lines. The first one reflects a traditional view of language development: a progression from prelinguistic development of motor and cognitive skills to development of phonology, then to lexicology, then to syntax and morphology, then to pragmatics, and finally to the development of parent -child verbal interaction. This traditional view of language development defines the book's organization.
The second narrative line is a history of conceptual and methodological approaches to the development of blind children. As the authors argue, the initial research and conceptualization of blind children's development came from psychoanalytic perspectives, focusing on how congenital and early blindness interferes with the development of the ego. The methodology of this early work was often based on anecdotes and nonsystematic observations of blind children's behavior. This conceptual framework led many researchers to conclude that congenital and early blindness arrests the development of ego in the children and leads to autism and mental retardation. These researchers cited such apparently autistic behaviors as echolalia (i.e., child's repetition of phrases said by an interlocutor) and stillness and passivity when spoken to by an adult.