Infant Sight Development from 0 to 12 Months [ Super Video Explanation ].

Development of the Infant's Sight from 0 to 12 Months

La view of the newborn begins to develop already during the intrauterine life of the baby.

In this article you can find out how to improve month by month and how to stimulate it with the right activities.

Index

INTRODUCTION to the development of the infant's eyesight from 0 to 12 months
VISUAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE MOTHER'S BELLY DURING PREGNANCY
Sight, one of the infant's most important senses
After birth, when do babies begin to see?
What an infant sees in the first weeks of life
What does an infant see in the first two to three months of life?
What a 4-6 month old child sees
How does the child see after the age of 6 months?

1. Development of the infant's eyesight from 0 to 12 months

I think that each parentlooking at her newborn child, widening her eyes to focus on his face, wondered at least once:

When do babies begin to see and what do they see in the first months of life?

At what age does the newborn begin to see?

How do babies see at birth?

How vision gradually improves in the first months of life?

The answers to these questions are very interesting and make one fully understand the importance of a correct visual stimulation from the first weeks of life.

To best explain this progressive visual improvement, let us start with the maternal pregnancy.

2. An infant's visual development starts in the mother's belly

Ever since maternal pregnancy, many expectant and new parents have been wondering what the your child's visual capabilities during the gestation and, after birth, when it will be able to distinguish shapes, colours and depth.

La sight begins to develop approximately 30 days after conceptionwhen tiny eyeballs form in the foetus on both sides of the head.

Around the seventh week of gestation, the optic nerveFollowing this, we will create the retinal cells whose vascularisation is evident from the fourth/fifth month of gestation.

Around the 18th/20th week of life the first eye movements which will increase in the last trimester of pregnancy. In this same gestational period, the baby's first body movements begin, which are essential for its motor development.

Another important fact to note is that in the second and third trimester of pregnancy, the nerves that connect the eyes to the cerebral cortex predisposed to vision develop. These, called retinal nervesThey branch off to the posterior part of the brain that will form the visual cortex.

During this period, the brain is developing about 10 billion new synapses per day.

The result of this immense work is that the neural circuits that control theeyelid opening and closing, pupil dilation and eye movement are already present before birth!

The sight of the newborn in the belly

Evidence of the above is underlined by a experiment in which it was noted that as early as the beginning of the third trimester, the foetus moves or changes its heartbeat in response to a bright light projected onto the mother's belly.

The ultrasound scan showed that the foetus reacted to light squinting and retracting his eyelids; his heartbeat increased.

This experiment thus proved that the foetus can see into the mother's belly even if only the light passing through the abdominal walls.

3. Sight: one of the infant's most important senses

The newborn baby after birth begins to receive the first visual (but not only) stimuli from the outside world.

His neuro-psycho-visual-motor development represents a maturative process that will gradually enable the child to achieve adequate cognitive, motor, relational, affective and visual skills.

This development depends on the maturation of the central nervous system but also by the environmental stimulations he receives on a daily basis.

For this reason, it is essential to offer the correct stimuli (visual, motor, tactile, etc.) to the child through the right activities and games suitable for its perception.

As far as vision is concerned, it represents one of the most important senses since more than 70% of the information we receive from the outside world comes from it. From this analysis we derive theimportance of early stimulation.

4. After birth, when do babies start to see?

The newborn child after birth begins to receive the first visual stimuli from the external environment and its view is immediately responsive. In fact, the child is thought to be able to distinguish the mother's face from that of a stranger through the combined use of sight and all its sense organs.

Obviously, the child has a limited and ill-defined visionHe is initially annoyed by light sources.

In newborns, peripheral vision and archaic reflexes, which are essential for proper postural and motor development, are very much alive.

Let us now see how the newborn's eyesight improves month by month in the first year of life.

5. View of the newborn in the first weeks of life

In the first month of life, the infant is myopicHe is not yet able to control his eye movements and cannot focus on objects.

This also explains why the so-called ''neonatal strabismus' which should resolve itself within a few weeks. During this period the infant is able to see objects located at a distance of 20-25 centimetres from his eyes, the distance that separates him from his mother's face when he is suckled.

As it was inside the mother's belly, the newborn baby perceives light and darkness wellreacting to a light or sudden stimulus by closing the eyelids.

How to stimulate eyesight in the first weeks?

In the first weeks of life, the baby does not see in colour but the world appears to him in black and white with different shades of grey.

For this reason, the newborn prefers high-contrast images of light and shadow (black and white).

An excellent method for stimulate visual acuity are the black and white booklets high-contrast geometric shapes or defined contours, to which the child will be extremely attracted.

When you offer these booklets to the child, make sure you position them correctly in front of the child; place them neither too close nor too far away (no more than 20-25 cm), moving the picture away and closer until you realise that the child has managed to focus on what you are showing him.

So far, we have talked about visual stimulation through high-contrast figures, but another indispensable source of information for infants is the parents' faces!

For this reason, in waking moments you often talk to the child by positioning yourself at about 20 cm from his face e conversate with your child in shifts (i.e. wait a few seconds while the child tries to vocalise to ''answer'' you).

During this period, it is not so much what you say to the child that is important, but rather your intonation, volume, facial expressions and rhythm.

You can propose this activity to your child in either a supine or prone position; in this case you are also favouring a early motor development thanks to the tummy time.

Click on the image below to find out how to guarantee a perfect motor and postural development of your baby, from the birth until walk autonomous.

6. What does an infant see in the first 2/3 months of life?

After the first month of life, the child's eyesight gradually improves and, in the second and third months, the infant will be able to focus his or her attention on an object (books, puppet, etc.) that is shown to him or her at a distance of 25-40 cm.

In fact, its focus improves, the visual field is larger and neck mobility increases due to motor development during tummy time.

The child begins to smile in response to the stimuli received and is increasingly attracted to the faces of mum and dad, whose features he can better distinguish; this contributes to strengthening the bond with the parents.

Coordination of eye movements becomes more stable and the child is able to stare at faces for a long time. In addition, the visual tracking movementi.e. the child can follow a moving object in front of him with his gaze.

During these months the child is attracted by strong, high-contrast colours each other such as blue, red, green, yellow.

For this reason, visual development can be promoted by hardback booklets with colourful pictures high contrast to each other that the child can watch closely and manipulate.

7. What the eyesight of the 4-6 month old infant looks like

When your child turns four months old, it can be said that it sees well (although not yet perfectly).

In fact, from four months of age onwards, the child carefully observes the objects it manipulates, gradually improving the eye-hand-mouth coordination and the fine motor skills.

The eyes are coordinated with each other and neonatal squinting should no longer be present.

The ability to focus improves, the child sees at greater and greater distances and begins to perceive slightly the spatial depth (understands whether an object is near or far).

Visual development linked with motor development

During this period, colour vision becomes similar to that of adults.

When the child is lying supine and is offered an object, the binocular vision and spatial awareness make him able to pick up the game and take it to his mouth.

In prone position (a position that should have become extremely pleasant by now) the child should be able to support himself sufficiently with his torso, head and arms so that he can manipulate the toys in front of him.

At the same time, the sdevelopment of the vestibular system and balancein combination with acquired motor skills, should enable them to learn to roll from 4 to 6 months of age.

8. How does the child see after the age of 6 months?

By the time the child is 6 months old, it will have reached an almost fully developed visual capacity: sees well the shapes of toys and food (self-weaning starts at this age), their colours and contours.

La spatial depth perception will always be better.

It is no coincidence that from 6 to 9 months the child also learns to crawl and/or crawl, motor stages in which the child first learns to move anteriorly to reach a toy or any other object.

In this way, the child not only trains his motor, vestibular and proprioceptive skills, but also promotes a visual improvement (especially depth understanding) experience from the movement.

The visual capacity achieved and the curiosity that comes with knowing how to move will be such that the child will become a little Ferrari crawling all over the house.

Sight at the Newborn Year

Month after month, the child will be able to notice an object at a distance and point to it perfectly.

At one year of age, the child will finally have almost perfect eyesight, with defined contours and complete spatial three-dimensionality.

At this point, your child will have acquired full depth awareness, also called stereopsisand will almost be able to walk independently.

So your little hero is ready to face all the adventures that await him.