On Engaging with People in Early Childhood: The Case of Congenital Blindness

Congenitally blind children face profound difficulties in relating to people and things in the world around them. In this article we report observations of children in the Blind Nursery of the Anna Freud Centre (at that time named the Hampstead Child Therapy Centre) deemed to be congenitally blind, during the 1950s and 1960s. These observations highlight the far-reaching developmental implications of congenital blindness, and afford a fresh perspective on the nature and role of interpersonal engagement in the early development of sighted children.

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