Are language and social communication intact in children with congenital visual impairment?1 Abbreviated title: Language and social communication in children with visual impairment

Background: Development of children with congenital visual impairment (VI) has been associated with se of sighted mediates such Methods: We al-range verbal intelligence in the context of i) a structured language assessment, ii) a parental report of everyday communicative behaviours, and iii) in comparison to a group of typically developing sighted children of their good and poorer use of were observed with VI in this study is consistent with the pattern found in sighted children on the autism spectrum. Unique evidence that such characteristics are also prevalent amongst children with some limited levels of ‘form’ vision guage concern dren with good intellectual abilities and congenital VI at school age, despite having advanced linguistic skills. Very limited vision was not sufficient to ameliorate the effects of VI. Developmental ate for future interventions with such