The development of conservation concepts in children with visual impairment

The investigation was the last in a series examining similarity of sequence and structure in the development of children with different handicapping conditions. It focused on the development of conservation concepts by children who were visually impaired but not blind. Similarity in order of acquisition of conservation concepts for visually impaired and sighted children was found and was supported by scalogram analyses yielding very high coefficients of reproducibility. Similarity in structure or level of understanding of conservation was also evident for these groups of children at comparable chronological ages and was supported by multiple regression analyses. There was no evidence of delay in the visually impaired children's development of conservation concepts.