behavior was virtually nonexistent, and she had all the appearances of a defective, uneducable child. At age five years three months, awareness and manipulation of the object world was well under way accompanied, as is usually the case, by speech and meaningful use of verbal symbols. By age five years eight months, she was actively and spontaneously making use of a great part of the stimuli around her.

It is not unusual to find that blind children do not possess a true picture of the self by kindergarten age. The case of Darlene is an illustration. At age four years five months referral to self was in third person: "she" or "Darlene." As is the case in any verbal child, this is a clearly recognized cue pointing to an inadequate, incomplete awareness of herself as a person. Darlene's level of development and behavior exemplifies some of the aspects which often accompany the poorly formed self-concept. Relationships, awareness of surroundings, emotional nature, and mental functioning were seriously impaired.

The foregoing discussion has been presented somewhat in detail because it relates so specifically to the child who is severely disturbed. Those professional persons who are involved in the appraisal or evaluation of these children who present extraordinarily complex development may be helped additionally by the presentation of the following material which has resulted from the pooled thinking of many competent professional personnel who, through observation, study, and diligent appraisal have demonstrated unusual insight and skill in interpreting the development of blind children.

The early years of life of "problem" blind children seem, in most cases, to follow a definite pattern. First, the recognition of the visual loss may be delayed due to the apparent slowness in basic development: very little reaching out for things, little or no interest in what is going on, and little body activity. Walking and talking are often delayed. Parents hope the child will "catch up" and some professional people who appraise these children feel that the child may improve given more incentive through enriched opportunity. Indeed, the long-range follow up of children for whom there has been appropriate service tends to substantiate this feeling and gives support to more positively appraising the potentials of the child.

IT SHOULD BE REMEMBERED THAT THE BLIND CHILD WHO APPEARS TO BE TOTALLY UNAWARE OF WHAT IS GOING ON AROUND HIM MAY NOT BE AN UNRESPONSIVE CHILD. HIS RESPONSE MAY BE DIFFERENT FROM WHAT WE EXPECT AND WHAT WE WOULD LIKE.

In addition to the standardized instruments which may be used in appraising a blind child, the sophisticated examiner seeks revealing information as he tries to answer such questions as those which involve use of body, emotions, methods of communication, learning motivation, etc.:

• What is the degree of body coordination?

• Is there an emphasis on the use of any one part of the body, i.e. mouthing, hand-flapping, weight-shifting, etc.?

• Is there a refusal to use any part of the body?

• Is he aware of other people?

• Does his emotion or lack of emotion serve a useful purpose? • Is he aware of this purpose?

• Will he modify his behavior on request?

• At what age level is his expressive vocabulary?

• What is the extent of his receptive vocabulary?

• What age level does it approximate?
• Does he have a "language of his own?"
• Does he speak only in vowel sounds?
• Does he have a speech rhythm?

• Is there a characteristic pitch to his sounds?
• Does he mimic?

• Does he reproduce sound in a definite pattern?

• Does he have a system for learning in his own way?

Is this based on cues and use of other senses?

Is it appropriate?

Does he learn quickly?

Is there a delay in his responding?

• Is he interested only in manipulating relationships with others either overtly or by withdrawing?

• Does he have any pride in his own accomplishments?

• Does he desire the approval of others?

• Is he amused with something that he does not share with others?

• Does he laugh and giggle?

• Can he laugh with someone? • Can he laugh at something?

• Does he laugh at something no one else would laugh at?

V. The Child Comes to School

When the child enters the schoolroom, he brings to the teacher the first of the resources upon which she must draw: his own way of expressing himself. His behavior is his means of communicating how he feels about himself and the world, and implicit within his behavior patterns will be the information which the teacher needs about how this child functions-what he knows, what he wants to know, and what he does not want to know both as an individual and as a part of a schoolroom setting.

Certain characteristics in his behavior give clues about his response to sensory deprivation, his means of coping with his social environment, and his expectations from other individuals. Since behavior which is not useful to a child will not be perpetuated, the teacher will know that what he does and says (or does not say) has meaning for him and must come to have some significance to the teacher before she can help him grow into a new stage of functioning.

Stamping feet, talking to himself, clapping hands may be ways by which the child can tell through listening to echoes the things he needs to know at the moment-where he is, how close he is to walls, to doors. It may also be a way of increasing auditory stimulation which may have become a pleasurable substitute for more normal social stimulation. Again, such behavior may indicate a child's own device for channeling the hostile urge to hit or kick into more bearable impulses. Some of these alternatives are more likely than others. With any given child all must be entertained, as well as others his behavior may suggest, until some resolution of the behavior is brought about by a further stage in growth of the child.

Calling out, crying, shrieking, are not such infantile, dependent behaviors as might be judged on the basis of chronological standards for sighted children. Perhaps the child cannot function without the support of the parent or teacher. The child cannot see where another individual is in relation to himself, but he can find out by calling, or crying, which usually brings a response.

The teacher must be able to recognize whether this behavior is indeed useful motor process to the child or if the child may be using the crying, the calling out, even the twirling and body rocking to attract the adult to the point of interfering. He may thus be establishing a contact and relationship which he wants but feels unable to secure in more legitimate ways.

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With various behavior patterns the child demonstrates what he has learned and to what he responds. The teacher's first role is to discover from the child's behavior not only what he have learned but also what this learning means to him. A means of achieving this is to discover to what the child responds, for response is communication and opens the way to an exchange of feeling and of vital information about the nature of the new environment and what may hold.

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No matter how withdrawn or uncommunicative the child may be on the level of gross response, it can be recognized that these children are hypersensitive to their environment. Both withdrawal from excitement and jumping and rocking to auditory stimulation are responses of this sort. The child's response to control, to play, to new materials, to toys are indications of what may reach him and what may frighten him into further withdrawal.

When this child comes to school, he is placed in a classroom where it is understood by all those in the school setting that he is there because he needs to learn. Just as the school cannot dictate before he arrives exactly what he needs to learn, he also cannot come into a program predesigned for him-for the "program" does not exist until the child builds it together with his teacher.

The child by his behavior will exhibit the level upon which he is operating, demonstrating his areas of need, but also demonstrat