Imitazione, ripetizione e linguaggio formulario nell'acquisizione linguistica. Il caso dei bambini non vedenti

Studies on blind children s language acquisition emphazise their frequent and extended use of IRR-speech (Imitation, Repetion, Routine), allowing the hypothesis according to which blind children are gestaltic-style language learners. The specific style used by blind children is presumably due to their impossibility to access to extra-linguistic elements (smile, eye-contact, etc.), which characterise pre-verbal communication and constitute the basis for a correct development of dialogic competence. The analysis of blind children s linguistic development allows to point out general considerations about the process of language acquisition tout court and to make some hypothesis concerning what kind of elements could lead to an analytic style of language acquisition or to a gestaltic one.