Phonological and tactual coding of Braille by blind children

Two experiments were carried out to investigate phonological and tactual coding in Braille reading by blind children. In the first, the children read aloud two lists of word pairs, one item at a time. The second or 'target' word of each pair (e.g. on) was the same in both lists. In one list, the congruent list, the phonology and orthography of the first word of the pair (sun) provided no inconsistency with respect to the target word (sun-on). In the other incongruent list, the preceding word was similar in orthography but inconsistent in phonology with respect to the target word (son-on). The children named the target words (i.e. on) significantly faster in the context of the congruous list than in the context of the incongruous list, thus revealing a phonological effect in the blind children's reading of single words. In addition, direct lexical access, from tactual input, seems to proceed with the same facility for the blind as does visual input for the sighted. In the second study the children read aloud words which were either orthographically regular or irregular. The results indicated that the irregular words took longer to name than the regular words. It was suggested that blind children, like sighted children, show phonological interference effects in word naming. The results are discussed in relation to recent models of the processes involved in word naming.