Congenital visual impairment does not impede the development of infants’ ability to reach to the self

While early visual deprivation can hinder some spatial skills, it can also lead to sensory enhancements. Evidence from visually impaired infants is sparse but suggests preserved unisensory orienting and greater reliance on touch alongside reduced multisensory spatial integration and delayed spatially guided action.1,2 Reaching to touch on the body is a spatial task requiring touch to be remapped relative to body posture. Visual impairment could therefore delay this ability if vision calibrates spatial representations, or preserve or enhance it if attention to somatosensory input supports compensation. We tested sighted, low-vision, and blind infants (6–24 months) reaching to vibrotactile targets. Reaching success was comparable across groups and increased with age. Low-vision infants reached more slowly than sighted infants, whereas blind infants did not differ from sighted infants. Thus, body-centered tactile localization can develop without typical visual experience, although degraded visual input may selectively slow somatosensory guidance of action.