Human Figure Representation by Blind Children

Abstract

The present study examined the extent to which visual experience contributes to children's ability to represent the human figure. Nine congenitally blind children aged 7:11 to 13:7 and nine sighted children aged 7:9 to 13:6 modeled the human figure with plasticene. The controls performed more accurately than the blind children with respect to presence and placement of body parts and significantly (p less than .01) surpassed the latter with respect to proportion of body parts, even when blindfolded. Congenitally blind children did internalize a representation of the human body, but compared to that of sighted children, it was impoverished and systematically distorted. This finding suggests that tactile-kinesthetic information cannot fully compensate for visual experience in the formation of an internalized representation of the human body.