This book breaks new ground in our understanding of how we perceive and represent the space around us - one of the central topics in cognitive psychology. It presents a new view of development and spatial cognition by reversing the usual focus on vision and examining the evidence on representation in the total absence of vision without specific brain damage. Findings from the author's work with congenitally totally blind and with sighted children, together with studies from a wide variety of other areas, are set in the context of intersensory and spatial development. Touch and movement are considered as converging sources of reference information with and without vision. The findings have important implications for future work in many fields, particularly developmental pscychology; cognition, cognitive neuroscience and visual handicap, and make this new work essential reading for students and researchers in these fields.

Visual dysfunctions can limit children's concentration, self esteem and school success as they struggle to understand fundamentals such as colors, letters and how to judge distance. With the right help, these obstacles can be overcome, allowing children to reach their full potential and see the world clearly. This accessible book explores how visual problems develop and how they can be reversed through effective and efficient visual therapy. It breaks down myths surrounding visual dysfunction and explains in straightforward terms the various conditions that could be impacting a child's perception, even if they have perfect sight. The visual therapy used in behavioral optometry retrains the brain to perform visual skills more effectively. In these pages there is clear guidance on the array of therapies, techniques and aids available, all of which can make a profound difference to a child's life. This introductory guide to behavioral optometry will be a welcome resource for parents and professionals in search of options to help a child who is experiencing visual problems.

The goal of this manual is to enhance the capacity of all members of the educational context, whether student, parent, teacher, administrator, or consultant, to activate the benefits of infused technologies for all learners, including those who are blind or have low vision. To accomplish this purpose this manual provides background and practical information with respect to inquiry-based education, infused technologies, and blindness and visual impairment. You will discover vignettes of real-life blind learners, tips from a blind educator, key components of accessible technology- infused education including information on adaptive technologies for applications that have not yet been designed for all learners, and practical suggestions to make online courses and Web sites accessible. For those who wish to explore further, there are numerous recommendations for further reading, organized to guide the reader to specific content.

In this book we are interested in patterns of education, rehabilitation service, socialization, and ideas about blindness that in large part produce the above-mentioned distinct patterns. We will examine the economic interests of professional groups and the patterns of domination and subordination, which are present in most rehabilitation relationships. Our central tenet is that the behavior of blind people is not a product of the physical condition of blindness or the amount of residual vision a blind person has. Rather, the behavior of blind people in our society is governed by socialization. Blindness is a social problem arising from erroneous, socially constructed negative beliefs about the capacities of blind people involuntarily assimilated from the broader society by the blind. People learn to live independently or they learn to be dependent. The reactions of parents, teachers, peers, the health professionals, rehabilitation counselors and the general public have defined the choices available to blind people. This is the case in every culture and society around the world. Differences result from different cultural values, levels of economic development, and historical traditions.

Our book examines the role of three factors, God, Money, and Politics, in the epistemological theory of blindness, (the theory of the construction of knowledge on blindness and touch by social and cultural change). This book also illustrates this development has, in the main, been motivated by an attempt to assert or gain power and why the study of blindness in conventional academic subjects such as psychology, history and sociology is so important. We do this by presenting the main theories of disability and blindness that have informed the writing of this book, and a frame of reference for the historical story. Which places the book in the broad context of theories of disability and blindness, within an academic and symbolic context of physical impairment and the social mythologies that accompany such understanding.