The developmental evaluation of the blind premature infant.

Abstract

The developmental evaluation of blind infants is made doubly difficult at the present time, 1 since most of these infants are prematurely born and are blind due to retrolental fibroplasia. We have no specific standards for testing the developmental progress of premature infants with vision, much less those who are blind. Many times it is important for the parents of blind infants and those who are advising them to have some realistic understanding of the developmental progress of these blind babies. Many blind infants are greatly underestimated as to the possibilities for their development, and other blind infants are not accepted as being mentally retarded, as well as blind. Gesell * states that his standards for fullterm infants are applicable for premature infants if one makes the appropriate correction for the number of weeks of prematurity. He further states that blind children follow the same patterns of neuromuscular and mental development