Introduction: Social skills are acquired primarily through imitation using the visual system. As a result, people with visual impairments may experience difficulties in this area at any age, which can have a major effect on their social participation and on their quality of life. The objective of this study was to systematically review the effects…

A review of the literature on development of verbal language by sighted and blind children is followed by report of a study showing no gross differences in the language of intellectually normal sighted and blind adolescents. (CL)

Although gestural communication is largely visuo-spatial, the extent to which a visual model is necessary for the development of gesture is unclear. This article summarizes recent research on gesture production by congenitally blind speakers and discusses the implications of these results for the hypothesized link between gesture and thought.…

The development of formal operations in normal adolescents is briefly examined, and a discussion of the development of exceptional adolescents focuses on the following exceptionalities: retardation, blindness, deafness, and giftedness. Some directions for future research are considered. (DLS)

This article identifies the potential affect of alcohol and other drug abuse (AODA) on people who are blind or visually impaired, the barriers to providing effective AODA services for those people, and strategies for improving services for people with coexisting blindness or visual impairments and AODA. (Contains references.) (CR)