Table 1.
Participant demographics
| Age (years) | Gender | Subject | Age when learned English | Handedness | Age of blindness | Cause of blindness | Residual vision | General Braille ability | WJIII Braille score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.03 | F | BC4 | 24 months | Right | Birth | Premature birth/ROP stage V | None | None (Learning pre-Braille) | 0 |
| 4.64 | M | BC13 | 0 | Right | Birth | Leber's congenital amaurosis | None | Letter-by-letter | 0.15 |
| 5.05 | F | BC16 | 0 | Right | Birth | Leber's congenital amaurosis | LP | Letter-by-letter | 0.07 |
| 5.13 | M | BC15 | 0 | Right | Birth | Microphthalmia with sclerocornea | LP, some color | Letter-by-letter | NA |
| 5.69 | F | BC19 | 0 | Right | Birth | Microphthalmia | None | Word-by-word | 0.12 |
| 5.7 | M | BC3 | 28.5 months | Ambi | Birth | Microphthalmia, retinal dysplasia, CM, PA | None | Letter-by-Letter | 0.12 |
| 6.76 | M | BC17 | 0 | Right | Birth | Leber's congenital amaurosis | None | Word-by-word | 0.20 |
| 7.22 | F | BC12 | 0 | Right/Ambi | 2 mo | Leber's congenital amaurosis | LP | Whole stories | 0.57 |
| 7.53 | F | BC6 | 0 | Right | 2–5 yrs | Uveitis | Minimal LP | Whole stories | 0.34 |
| 7.78 | M | BC18 | 0 | Right | Birth | Leber's congenital amaurosis | LP | Word-by-word | 0.37 |
| 8.05 | M | BC2 | 0 | Left | Birth | Premature birth/ROP | Minimal LP | Whole stories | 0.30 |
| 8.37 | M | BC10 | 0 | Right | Birth | Leber's congenital amaurosis | None | Whole stories | 0.54 |
| 9.5 | F | BC8 | 0 | Right/Ambi | Birth | Familial exudative Vitreoretinapathy | None | Whole stories/Adult level | 0.75 |
| 9.62 | M | BC11 | 0 | Right/Ambi | Birth | Leber's congenital Amaurosis | Light/some form perception | Adult level | 0.94 |
| 9.65 | F | BC7 | 6 years | Left/Ambi | Birth | Microphthalmia | Minimal LP | Word-by-word/Whole stories | 0.31 |
| 11.6 | F | BC14 | 0 | Left | Birth | Leber's congenital amaurosis | None | Whole stories | 0.91 |
| 14.2 | M | BC9 | 0 | Ambi | Birth | Bilateral detached retinas at birth | None | Whole stories/Adult level | 0.70 |
| 15.6 | M | BC1 | 0 | Right | Birth | Anophthalmia | None | Adult level | NA |
| 17 | F | BC5 | 0 | Right | Birth | Optic nerve hypoplasia | None | Adult level | 0.99 |
Age of blindness describes onset of blindness, which is defined as absence of vision with at most minimal light perception (LP). General Braille ability measure reflects a subjective report from the parents of the blind children. WJIII Braille score is combined scores from the Letter-Word ID and Word Attack subsets of the Woodcock-Johnson III Test of Cognitive Abilities. The demographic groups are: Sighted blindfolded children: n = 20, 13 female, mean age 8.66 years, SD, 2.90, all native English speakers (8 multilingual), 5 left-handed; sighted children: n = 20, 11 female, mean age 9.08 years, SD, 2.63, all native English speakers (3 multilingual), 1 left-handed. BC, Blind child; ROP, retinopathy of prematurity; CM, coloboma microcornea; PA, Peter's anomaly.