Development of spatial concepts in visually deprived children.

110 blind children in Grades 2 through 12 were matched with sighted controls for age, sex, and verbal reasoning ability. Spatial reasoning was compared with nonspatial reasoning ability for the two groups. At each age level, blind children were inferior to sighted children on spatial reasoning, although the two groups did not differ on nonspatial reasoning. Data further support the likelihood that certain interactions with the perceptual environment may be crucial to specific aspects of cognitive functioning in humans.