O, Say Can You See? – 6 to 8 months

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
Four to Six Months

Six to Eight Months
With sitting mastered, a baby’s territory begins to expand rapidly. Many babies begin crawling (scooting, creeping, commando crawling, or other sorts of movement) during this stage. Crawling further develops coordination between vision and body movement. By six months a baby’s eyes should move together all of the time. At this age, babies tend to show a preference for reds and yellows.

Your baby is developing a better awareness of his body, and how to make it do what he wants. (Though not always successfully…I remember my frustrated babies who were trying to move towards a toy, but their little bodies kept scooting backwards instead!)

Babies learn to judge distances by seeing something, and then making the necessary movements to reach it. Your baby is getting much more accurate at grasping and throwing objects. This is the stage where babies love to sit in a high chair with toys on the tray, and then drop them over the side and look for them. Cheerio-type cereal is a popular highchair activity, because babies are thrilled that they can pick up small objects with a “raking motion”. (The pincer grasp comes later.)

Seeing how objects occupy space is fascinating to babies at this age. Objects that fit inside each other (like stacking cups), things that can be transferred from one hand to the other (a small toy), turning over items to see what is underneath, finding hidden objects (like a small ball hidden in a pot that has its lid on), and the beginning of stacking (blocks are great for this activity), are all intriguing actions. Emptying and filling containers becomes a fascinating pastime.
 
Here are some ideas to help stimulate your 6 to 8 month old’s visual development:
• Play peek-a-boo with a chiffon scarf. Take turns hiding yourself and baby.
• Hide small objects under the scarf and practice “finding” them.
• Get down on the floor and encourage your baby to crawl to objects. Place a favorite toy on the floor just out of reach and cheer her on!
• Provide lots of toys and objects that he can take apart and put together.
• Babies love mirrors, so an unbreakable mirror is tons of fun. With your baby in your lap, make faces at her in the mirror and see what happens. Your little one will be fascinated with his own face, as well.
• Read, read, read to your baby. Books at this age are fun to read and chew, so be sure to have cloth and/or board books handy!

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who is reminded by all this “vision” talk that it is time to change her contacts! More 8-12 month vision development to come on Tuesday.