Auditory social cognition precursors in 12-month-old infants with visual impairment: A preliminary study.
By 12 months, infants with visual impairment already point less and triangulate rarely—catch it early and coach caregivers to use sound and touch cues.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Capelli et al. (2025) watched 12-month-old infants with visual impairment play with their moms. They compared the babies' pointing, triangulation, and basic babble to fully-sighted peers.
The team used short play tasks and parent checklists. They wanted to see if vision loss already changes early social communication.
What they found
Infants with visual impairment pointed less and showed fewer three-way looks between toy, mom, and object. Basic babble and reaching were about the same.
The gaps showed up before the first birthday, even though the babies could hear and vocalize.
How this fits with other research
Veness et al. (2012) also found that weak gestures at 12 months flag later problems, but in autism risk, not vision loss. Same age, same tool, different cause.
Bedford et al. (2012) saw reduced social attention in autism-risk babies at 13 months. The pattern looks alike—less looking, less pointing—but the reason is neurodevelopmental risk, not blindness. The methods agree; the diagnoses differ.
Giesbers et al. (2020) extended the story to older kids. They gave 5- to 11-year-olds with visual impairment sound-augmented toys and saw small social gains. Early pointing gaps found by Elena et al. can be softened later with auditory cues.
Why it matters
Screen pointing and triangulation at the 12-month visit for any baby with visual impairment. Add these two items to your assessment checklist even if language seems on track. Early gaps are subtle but real, and you can start parent coaching right away.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIM: Clinical observations have long suggested that infants with visual impairment (VI) may experience delays in the development of socio-cognitive skills compared to their fully-sighted (FS) counterparts. Nonetheless, evidence supporting anecdotical observations remains limited. In this study, we assessed socio-cognitive behaviours in a cohort of infants with VI and compared them to a group of FS infants between 9 and 12 months of age. METHODS: Our analysis focused on key early markers of social and cognitive engagement, including gaze orienting, communicative signalling, and interaction patterns with the environment and caregivers. RESULTS: Gaze orienting and the production of basic communication signals, such as vocalizations and gestures aimed at initiating social interaction, were largely comparable between the VI and FS groups. However, important differences emerged in more complex socio-cognitive behaviours: infants with VI exhibited significantly less triangulation and produced fewer pointing gestures compared to FS infants. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight specific socio-cognitive vulnerabilities in early development associated with visual impairment and underscore the need for targeted early interventions. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: This study explores the early emergence of socio-cognitive developmental precursors in a sample of 9- to 12-month-old infants with visual impairments, compared to their fully sighted counterparts. The results indicate that specific socio-cognitive vulnerabilities may be observable as early as the end of the first year of life in infants with visual impairments, who demonstrated less triangulation abilities and produced fewer pointing gestures than full-sighted peers. We suggest that these findings could help refine early intervention strategies for this population.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2025 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2025.105106