The supposition was made that a child lacking a major sense such as vision would understand his world later and in a different way from a child with full sensory equipment. With this in mind, observations made on the blind nursery school children in the Hampstead

Child-Therapy Clinic were examined. These children showed some difficulty in distinguishing reality and make-believe, reality and fantasy, a somewhat partial understanding of some common objects, and certain differences in the way they compared and reasoned about them. This is discussed in the light of other work. While no general conclusion can be drawn on the basis of this very small group, the study raises certain queries concerning the hurdles other blind children may surmount or retreat from in the course of their development, and concerning the importance of the mother not only in her nurturing role, but more particularly as the child's auxiliary ego helping him to cathect and organize his world without the aid of sight.