In order to understand maternal conceptions about child development, this paper studies the concepts mothers have of the development of children (two to seven years) with visual impairments (blindness and severe low vision). The study was conducted with a total of ten mothers aged between 22 and 39 years, with schooling equal to or higher than elementary education. To this end, structured interviews were conducted using a digital recorder and a guideline of questions concerning both child development and mothers' perception of the impairment diagnosis and the implications thereof. The interviews were carefully transcribed and analyzed using content analysis of thematic categories, defined according to the objectives of the study and maternal discourse. Four categories were defined: detection of visual impairment; reactions to the discovery of visual impairment; evaluation of children's characteristics through the subcategories: motor, language and social relations; and current development perceptions of visually impaired children. Maternal reports showed that early specialized care is important in dealing with the possible expectations of child development. We considered that understanding maternal conceptions is relevant, because these concepts can reveal how mothers interact with their children. In order to contribute to the development of intervention programs, further studies are in order, related to both maternal conceptions of child development and analysis of mother-child interaction, dealing with visual impairment.
Special Education; Social Perceptions; Human development; Visual Impairment