Early Blind

A person who was born blind or lost their vision before approximately age 5-7, before visual memories and spatial concepts based on vision were fully established. Early blind individuals develop spatial understanding entirely through non-visual senses—touch, hearing, proprioception, and movement. Research indicates they may have different spatial processing strategies than late blind or sighted people, though they can develop equally detailed and accurate mental maps. Early blind people have been found to be faster and more accurate at acoustic localization than sighted people, suggesting compensatory development of other sensory processing.