Perception of Speech

[Chunky]

would a person blind from birth learn english and be able to comprehend(sp?) it the same way a baby with sight would?
because i was thinking yesterday....when you speak to a baby...saying " bottle...bottle" while your holding out a bottle .....the baby with sight would have some kinda reconisashion(sp?)....a notion of what the word ment.
but to the blind...the words would only be a flow of never ending sounds..

??

[Ronald Brak]

Works the same way. A sighted baby touches the bottle, smells the bottle, tastes the bottle, hears the sound the bottle makes and sees the bottle. A blind baby does the same thing but misses out on the last step, however there is still plenty of infomation there to form a connection between the sound "bottle" and the actual object.

Of course a blind child isn't going to comprehend concepts such as colour. They can't even see black. Can you see black when you try to look out of your elbow? That's what total blindness from birth is (presumably) like.

[Chunky]

Can you see black when you try to look out of your elbow? That's what total blindness from birth is (presumably) like.

um.....are you talking about wraping my elbow around my eyes....to cover them up?

[Cylinder]

Blind children can have speech difficulties that stem from their inability to see (and therefore mimic) the articulation of the tongue, teeth and lips to make certain sounds. There is also the language comprehension problem that you describe, but both of these should fairly easy to overcome, I believe, with established language training for blind children. I posed a very similar question to an old friend of mine who works at Arkansas School for the Blind some months ago. She termed it as more of a delayed speech issue than an ongoing deficiency provided there are no other developmental issues. The deciding factor, according to her, is early intervention with blind children - as early as the second or third month.

[mickal555]

um.....are you talking about wraping my elbow around my eyes....to cover them up?
I think he means like- ignore your eyes and try to use your elbow to see something...

[Ronald Brak]

I think he means like- ignore your eyes and try to use your elbow to see something...

Yeah, you don't even see nothing when you try to look out of your elbow.
Q. What did the universe look like before the big bang?
A. It looked like this room does when you look at it with your elbow.

[Tog_]

There is a question I had once that is actually really close to this one. If a person is deaf from birth, never heard spoken language at all, how do they talk to themselves?

I talk to myself all the time. I'm doing it as a type this; sounding out the words in my head. When I drive, I carry on whole conversations with other 'me's, asking myself questions I might not have thought of about something, but it's all words. I can't imagine how a person who has never heard a single sound would do something like this. They must, somehow. It seems like a huge step in problem solving to just be left out completely.

[Ronald Brak]

There is a question I had once that is actually really close to this one. If a person is deaf from birth, never heard spoken language at all, how do they talk to themselves?

I talk to myself all the time. I'm doing it as a type this; sounding out the words in my head. When I drive, I carry on whole conversations with other 'me's, asking myself questions I might not have thought of about something, but it's all words. I can't imagine how a person who has never heard a single sound would do something like this. They must, somehow. It seems like a huge step in problem solving to just be left out completely.

To talk to yourself you need to know a language. Deaf people typically learn sign language and how to read. So they can talk to themselves just fine, or rather, sign to themselves or write to themselves. It's the same process as for people who talk to themselves but instead of sounds representing concepts they have visual symbols or finger positions.

[mickal555]

imagine being born with no sences but otherwise normal... has that ever happened, gezz it'd be awful...

[Tog_]

imagine being born with no sences but otherwise normal... has that ever happened, gezz it'd be awful...

Not actually born that way, but lost both sight and sound at 19 months. Helen Keller (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller)

[Ronald Brak]

imagine being born with no sences but otherwise normal... has that ever happened, gezz it'd be awful...

Well, on the bright side, you wouldn't actually have the ability to create the concept "boredom."

[BigDon]

Of course a blind child isn't going to comprehend concepts such as colour. They can't even see black. Can you see black when you try to look out of your elbow? That's what total blindness from birth is (presumably) like.

Ron is spot on correct. I was temporaraly blinded by a head injury once. Then had short recurring bouts for a couple of years afterward. You don't see black, you just don't see. Its very difficult to explain. Like the proverbial explaining "orange to a blind man".

[Corgon]

Not actually born that way, but lost both sight and sound at 19 months. Helen Keller (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller)
She still had touch, taste, and smell. I think mickal555 was talking about total sensory loss.