Helping Infants Learn to See
Many visual skills are not present at birth. Babies spend a great deal of time, especially in the first year or two of life, learning to see. Parents can help their infant learn to see by engaging in the following age appropriate activities.
Age: Birth to Four Months
Visual Skills: At birth, a baby can see light and patterns, but any object beyond eight inches is blurred. Infants prefer looking at faces over anything else, and already by eight weeks, they begin to focus their eyes on the eyes of a parent or other person near them.
Things To do:
- At night, use a night light in the baby's room so he will have something to look at upon awakening.
- Change the crib's position(and the baby's position in it) at times so that the child can respond to light from different directions.
- Provide things for the baby to look at, but don't go overboard. A bright, colorful mobile hanging over the crib will provide variety and movement. Printed sheets combined with an abundance of toys hanging above and on the sides of the crib can overwhelm an infant and may actually slow development.
- Place the baby on his stomach for 10-15 minutes at a time. After a few weeks, increase the frequency so the baby learns to raise his head up and look around.
Age: Four to Six Months
Visual Skills: Control of eye movements and eye-body coordination skills continue to develop.
Things To do:
- Hang a sturdy mobile, crib gym, or various objects across the crib for the baby to grab, pull, and kick. Avoid using the playpen or crib for hours on end.
- Encourage the baby to help hold the bottle as it approaches the mouth.
- Play patty cake, moving the baby's hands through the motions while saying the words aloud.
Age: Six to Eight Months
Visual Skills: Eyes should focus equally. Most babies start crawling, which helps further develop hand-eye-foot-body coordination.
Things To Do:
- Play hide-and-seek games to help your baby develop visual memory.
- Pick-up toys your baby drops from the highchair and permit him to repeat the process. This allows him to develop skills related to releasing and throwing.
Age: Eight to Twelve Months
Visual Skills: Babies start to judge distances fairly well and can throw things with greater precision.
Things To Do:
- Let the baby manipulate the pages of sturdy cardboard books.
- Name objects when talking to encourage the baby's word association and vocabulary development.
- Provide small objects for your baby to handle and manipulate. Be sure that the object is not too small. (Avoid all choking hazards, of course, especially peanuts, M&M's, and similarly-sized choking objects.)
Age: One to Two Years
Visual Skills: A child's hand-eye coordination and depth perception should be well developed. Now is the time for parents to help the child refine and further develop vision skills through use.
Things To Do:
- Roll a ball back and forth to help the child track objects with his eyes.
- Give the child building blocks, balls of different shapes and sizes, even a zipper(watch out for fingers).
Age: Two Years
Visual Skills: Children this age are highly interested in exploring their environment and in looking and listening.
Things To Do:
- Read or tell children stories. This stimulates the child's ability to visualize and begins the development of reading skills. Allow children to read along and point out objects, colors, and name characters. Use your finger to point out the words as you read.
- Give the child drawing and writing materials to develop visually-directed hand movements.
- Provide the child with bean bag or ring toss type games appropriate for age, toys that require proper insertion of shapes, toys that require the child to sort shapes and sizes, puzzles, and building blocks to further develop eye-hand coordination skills as well as teach spatial orientation.
Most of all, spend as much quality time with your baby as you can. These important milestones are too enjoyable to miss.
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