[The early development of blind children: the pioneering work of Selma Fraiberg].

The practical and theoretical repercussions of Selma Fraiberg's work are considerable. However, her work remains unrecognized in France. Combining scientific research with clinical work, Fraiberg demonstrated the need for early guidance of blind infants. Furthermore, she pointed out developmental weak points which must be given priority in specialized care. Her findings contributed to a better understanding of blind children as well as sighted children. In this paper, we present some of the most important distinctive features of the development of blind children as pointed out by Fraiberg, and we also present, in an appendix, a bibliography of her work.