Your baby is a wonder. She is learning and growing every day right before your eyes. While you love to watch everything she does, have you ever stopped to think about how you look to her?
Depending on exactly how old a child is, that answer might differ. Over the course of the first year of babies’ lives, vision is constantly developing. Take a moment to look over what is going on with your baby’s eyes.
Brand New Eyes
When children are born, their eyes have a long way to go. Initially, they won’t be able to focus on one thing over another. Their eyes will dart and shift from one space to another, just trying to take in the world around them. They won’t be able to tell the difference between two objects very well, and their main focus will be things that are very close to them, like their own hands or your face. From this point up until about two months their eyes will always seem to wander.
Newborns are also unable to see colors. The spaces around them only come through in black, white, and gray tones. It will take several weeks for them to see their first color, red. At this point all they can do is wait for things to come into focus.
Getting Better
It is at the five-month mark where infants’ vision will begin to expand. Our ability to judge the closeness of objects, otherwise known as depth perception, is not present when we are born. It is at this stage in babies’ visual development that they will be able to judge how far away something is. Expect to see a lot of reaching arms at this point.
Colors will also become more pronounced. They will be able to see the differences in tones and brightness. While it has not advanced fully yet, being able to see rainbows is a huge step.
Almost Perfect
Everything that was just starting to progress at five months will become much more pronounced by nine months. Babies will be able to judge how far something is and reach out to grasp it. They will also be able to look around enough to throw, so beware of flying objects. From this point until their first birthday, infants’ vision is busy perfecting itself. It actually won’t be on par with adult vision until the child is between the ages of three and five, but it’s still not bad for someone who has only been alive for twelve months.
Schedule an appointment today for more information about your baby’s vision development.
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