O, Say Can You See? Birth to Four Months

This is the next in series of blogs about the 8 sensory systems: Tactile, Visual, Auditory, Vestibular, Gustatory, Proprioceptive, Olfactory, and Inner Senses.

The visual system takes in information from the environment and interprets it. Vision works with other sensory systems and provides the information needed to have accurate motor responses.

When a baby is born, they have all the necessary pieces of the visual system in place, but they haven’t learned to use them yet. An infant’s vision begins to develop at birth, and they spend much of their early months of life learning how to see.

Birth to Four Months
At birth, babies see in black and white and shades of gray, but they very quickly develop the ability to see in color. At one week after birth, they can see red, orange, yellow and green. Blue and violet become visible between 4 and 6 months.  (For you brain development geeks – the light waves of blue and violet are shorter, and fewer color receptor exist in the human retina for blue light.)

Babies’ eyes are not very sensitive to light in the first month of life. The amount of light required for a one month old to be aware that light is present is 50 times higher than that of an adult. So go ahead and leave a light on in the nursery. You won’t have to stumble around in the dark, and the light won’t affect their ability to sleep. By three months, light detection threshold is only ten times that of an adult.

Newborns can only focus eight to twelve inches. (A breastfeeding baby can see mom’s face.) At first, infants have to move their whole head to move their eyes. But around 2 to 3 months, infants learn how to shift their gaze from one object to another without having to move their head. When infants start to follow moving objects with their eyes they begin to develop tracking and eye teaming skills. Until they learn to coordinate eye movements by 4 or 5 months, crossed eyes are common, but not a cause for alarm.

Here are some ideas to help stimulate your newborn’s visual development:
• Decorate the nursery with bright, cheerful colors.
• Frequently change the location of their crib or existing items in the room.
• Change your baby’s position in the crib.
• Talk to your baby as you walk around the room.
• Keep a night light on to provide visual stimulation when they are awake in their crib.
• Place reach-and-touch toys within your baby’s focus, about eight to twelve inches.
• Hang a brightly colored mobile above or near the crib. Make sure it has a variety of colors and shapes.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who will post all about a 4 to 6 month old tomorrow.