Teaching the Meaning of Words to Children with Visual Impairments

Abstract

In children who are blind (that is, those who have light perception or less vision), syntax, grammar, and lexical development are largely unexplored, and language problems mainly concern semantics and pragmatics (James & Stojanovik, 2007; Perez-Pereira & Conti-Ramsden, 1999; Tadic, Pring, & Dale, 2010). The same pattern was found in children with visual impairments (that is, those with some visual perception of form and detail) by Tadic et al. (2010) and Wegener-Sleeswijk and Van Ierland (1989a, 1989b), but research in this area is limited due to the range of vision in children with low vision. Although the breadth of the vocabulary of children who are blind or visually impaired is mostly comparable to that of sighted children, some children show problems with regard to the proper meaning of words. These problems reveal themselves when they are asked to elaborate on a word and not just to label an object or situation. An example comes from Linders (1998), who heard a boy who is blind say, Oh that tree is large, it must be in a large pot. According to Linders (1998), word knowledge does not seem to be a problem on a lexical level, because words are used correctly in proper sentences, but the full meaning of words is not always comprehended. Linders (1998) also found that although some children who are (legally) blind could describe objects and situations correctly, they were not able to act on this knowledge appropriately, or they had a wrong or incomplete idea of the objects and situations to which their words referred. Landau (1983) concluded: Where relevant experience is lacking, concepts cannot develop; and where concepts are lacking, word meanings cannot be learned (p. 63). A reason semantic and concept development in children with visual impairments is at risk for anomalous development is the restricted number of possibilities for exploring the environment (Warren & Hatton, 2002). According to Linders (1998), sometimes the mode of acquisition of words by children who are blind or profoundly visually impaired is responsible for the semantic problems. Mode of acquisition refers to the way the meaning of words is acquired: by sensory experience, by language and thinking, or by a combination of both. Some children with visual impairments have to rely more on touch and hearing than on vision to acquire the meaning of words. However, vision has several advantages over tactile and auditory perception. Vision enables us to gather much information at the same time, in an instant, and in a coherent way. Vision also integrates and structures information from the other senses and makes learning by imitation and incidental learning easier (Warren, 1994). Linders (1998) proposed three types of words children who are blind have to learn depending on the mode of acquisition. First, words metaphorically called far-away words concern concrete objects, situations, and actions outside a visually impaired child's direct experiences, because they are less accessible due to the vision loss. These words include those that describe objects that are far away (moon, airplanes); objects that are too large to touch in their entirety (buildings, rivers); fragile objects (smoke, mist); tiny objects (fleas, dust); and dangerous or shy objects and animals (lions, fire, hamsters). Learning the meaning of such words is more difficult for children with visual impairments. Although a child who is blind might easily recognize a far-away object upon touching it, there might be problems with describing its function, appearance, or use. Second, close-by words are words that children who are blind or visually impaired experience directly through senses other than vision (for instance, fingers, sleep, warm). Last, there are abstract words that do not have a concrete referent. The meaning of these words is completely dependent on language itself (for instance, between, because, and lie). The borders between these groups of words are not strict. …