Early visual deprivation does not prevent the emergence of basic numerical abilities in blind children

Abstract

Studies involving congenitally blind adults demonstrated that visual experience is not a mandatory prerequisite for the emergence of efficient numerical abilities. It remains however unknown whether blind adults developed lifelong strategies to compensate for the absence of foundations vision would provide in infancy. We therefore assessed basic numerical abilities in blind and sighted children of 6 to 13 years old. We also assessed verbal and spatial working memory abilities and their relationship with mental arithmetic in both groups. Blind children showed similar or better numerical abilities as compared to the sighted. Blind children also outperformed their sighted peers in every task assessing verbal working memory and demonstrated a similar spatial span. The correlation between arithmetic and the spatial sketchpad was affected by the group while the correlations between arithmetic and the other two components (the central executive and the phonological loop) were not affected by early visual experience. Our data suggest that early blindness does not impair the development of basic numerical competencies in children but influences the associations between arithmetic and some working memory components.

Anatomical and Functional Impacts of Congenital Bilateral Visual Deprivation on the Visual Pathway—A Comprehensive Review

“…For example, visual receptive fields must repeatedly remap as the distance between the two eyes increases. Indeed, experience-dependent matching of stimulus selectivity of the visual input from the two eyes occurs during the critical period [ 22 ]. Changes in the microstructure of white matter tracts have been found in late-blind subjects when compared to the congenitally blind or sighted controls [ 23 , 24 , 25 ].…”

“…Such findings increase the knowledge related to the impact of visual experience on numerical processing. Since both positive and negative numbers are fundamental aspects of learning mathematical principles, the outcomes of the present study provide information about the need to implement early rehabilitation strategies to prevent the risk of numerical difficulties in visually impaired children [ 22 ].…”

Numeracy skills learning of children in Africa:—Are disabled children lagging behind?

“…Morgan et al (2011) also find that children with speech-language impairments do not lag behind non-disabled children in their math skills growth [ 31 ]. Crollen et al (2021) have reported that blind children might even outperform their non-blind peers in numeracy abilities [ 32 ]. However, Zhang et al (2019) demonstrate that children with seeing or auditory perception challenges struggle to learn numeracy skills related to visual Arabic or verbal modules [ 33 ].…”

“…Children with vision and hearing disabilities perform well in numeracy skills return to schooling compared to non-disabled children . This hypothesis is based on earlier evidence [ 30 , 32 ], suggesting that vision and hearing abilities might not be crucial in developing numeracy skills. Although learning numeracy skills related to visual or verbal modules might be relevant [ 33 ], the numeracy tests involved in this survey are pretty basic.…”

Parallel Form Reliability Analysis of a Tactile Mental Cutting Test for Assessing Spatial Ability in Blind and Low-vision Populations

“…There is evidence from previous work that vision is not required to learn certain STEM concepts, and BLV individuals were able to perform at similar or higher levels than sighted populations [14], [15]. Giudice emphasizes the importance of developing spatial skills, and that the development and use of these skills can be equally as beneficial as the use of visual skills.…”