Verbalism and the Blind: A Critical Review of the Concept and the Literature

The present paper presents current theorizing in psycholinguistics which points up the inadequacy of the notion that verbalisms (nonsensory based words) are meaningless and detrimental to conceptual thinking in the blind. The failure to acknowledge the word-word nature of meaning is cited as the significant flaw in the development of the verbalism construct. A review of the literature indicates some of the methodological problems in research on verbalism. Suggestions for future research on the phenomenon are presented.