baby

Vision is one of your baby’s most precious sense. Babies will learn more about the world through their sight than through all their other senses combined. As a parent you can do much to aid your child’s visual development and growth.

Your child’s eyes are generally examined at birth for signs of major defects. This examination is extremely important because the earlier defects are detected, the greater the likelihood of effective treatment.

Although initially your child may have no signs of or vision problems, there is no guarantee that vision difficulties will not occur later. A child’s vision should be examined by an optometrist before reaching school age.

Watching your child’s vision progress will be a fascinating study and will provide important clues in the detection of vision deficiencies.. It will also give you ideas on ways of helping your baby’s visual development.

At birth a baby sees patterns of light and dark but specific objects are probably blurred. During the first four months, your baby should begin to follow slowly moving objects and to direct his or her hand movements. The two sides of the body are developed alternately. The baby will use the right hand, foot and eye for a few days of weeks, then use the left side for a time.

At this stage of your child’s development, some of the following ideas could be helpful.

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Your baby’s eyes Vision is one of your baby’s most precious sense. Babies will learn more about the world through their sight than through all their other senses combined. As a parent you can do much to aid your child’s visual development and growth. Your child’s eyes are generally examined at birth for signs of major defects. This examination is extremely important because the earlier defects are detected, the greater the likelihood of effective treatment. Although initially your child may have no signs of or vision problems, there is no guarantee that vision difficulties will not occur later. A child’s vision should be examined by an optometrist before reaching school age. Watching your child’s vision progress will be a fascinating study and will provide important clues in the detection of vision deficiencies.. It will also give you ideas on ways of helping your baby’s visual development. Birth to four months At birth a baby sees patterns of light and dark but specific objects are probably blurred. During the first four months, your baby should begin to follow slowly moving objects and to direct his or her hand movements. The two sides of the body are developed alternately. The baby will use the right hand, foot and eye for a few days of weeks, then use the left side for a time. At this stage of your child’s development, some of the following ideas could be helpful. Change the location of the bassinette and your infant’s position it it so that neither eye is favoured. Gazing constantly at a blank wall is not interesting. Hang a mobile above the bassinette to provide movement. Babies will earn to control eye movements by watching gentle movement. Provide a variety of sage objects within baby’s focus, about 200-300mm away, for the baby to touch. Talk to your baby as you move about the room. The baby will learn to associate movements, distances and direction with vision and hearing. Four to six months At four to six months, a baby learns to turn from side to side and use his or her arms and legs. Control or eye movement is further developed. You might notice that one eye is sometimes turned toward the nose or to the outside, giving the baby a cross-eyed appearance. When this happens the baby is using only the other eye. Within a few days or weeks the other eye will be used while the first will wander. This part of the development of binocularity – the use of two eyes together – and is normal in the first six months. You can help your baby’s development during this period by: Allowing your baby to explore different shapes and textures. Handing your child small objects so that his or her co-ordination is improved. Six to eight months Both eyes should focus equally by six to eight months. If your infant fails to use both eyes together after the age of six months, he or she should receive prompt professional advice. A child will not outgrow crossed eyes; the earlier the treatment is started, the better the chances of correcting the problem. During this period allow your child freedom to explore, provide interesting stuffed toys and participate in games such as hide and seek. Eight to 12 months Babies are generally more mobile now and being to use both eyes to judge distances. They can grasp and throw objects with greater accuracy. You can help their progress by: Allowing you baby to develop at his or her own pace. Walking too early may deprive the infant of co-ordination skills acquired during crawling. Letting the baby investigate the kitchen cupboards – he or she will learn much about the relative sizes of objects and improve control in hand movements. One to two years Co-ordination of eyes and hands is now well developed and your child will probably begin walking. Activities to be encouraged include: Playing will small objects like building blocks and simple puzzles to improve precision in movement and aid small muscle development. Climbing The use of a tricycle or rocking horse to increase co-ordination of the eyes, hands and feet. Two to three years The child now speaks in sentences and useful activities are: Reading or telling stories to improve the child’s ability to understand visual information and prepare for learning to read. Drawing, painting and colouring for development of accurate hand movements. Encourage your child to have a break from close work every 20 minutes, to move about and relax the eyes. By the age of three years, a thorough optometric examination will reveal any tendency toward squint (crossed eyes), shortsightedness or longsightedness. It will also check that your child is acquiring the many visual skills necessary for complete development. This examination provides an important record with which to compare later performance and enables better evaluation of symptoms that might occur as the child grows older. Watching your child’s development is one of the joys of parenthood. The Optometrists’ professional skills linked with your own active participation will ensure that your child realises his or her full visual potential.

Change the location of the bassinette and your infant’s position it it so that neither eye is favoured. Gazing constantly at a blank wall is not interesting.
Hang a mobile above the bassinette to provide movement. Babies will earn to control eye movements by watching gentle movement.
Provide a variety of sage objects within baby’s focus, about 200-300mm away, for the baby to touch.
Talk to your baby as you move about the room. The baby will learn to associate movements, distances and direction with vision and hearing.

At four to six months, a baby learns to turn from side to side and use his or her arms and legs. Control or eye movement is further developed. You might notice that one eye is sometimes turned toward the nose or to the outside, giving the baby a cross-eyed appearance. When this happens the baby is using only the other eye. Within a few days or weeks the other eye will be used while the first will wander. This part of the development of binocularity – the use of two eyes together – and is normal in the first six months.

Allowing your baby to explore different shapes and textures.
Handing your child small objects so that his or her co-ordination is improved.

Both eyes should focus equally by six to eight months. If your infant fails to use both eyes together after the age of six months, he or she should receive prompt professional advice. A child will not outgrow crossed eyes; the earlier the treatment is started, the better the chances of correcting the problem.

During this period allow your child freedom to explore, provide interesting stuffed toys and participate in games such as hide and seek.

Babies are generally more mobile now and being to use both eyes to judge distances. They can grasp and throw objects with greater accuracy.

Allowing you baby to develop at his or her own pace. Walking too early may deprive the infant of co-ordination skills acquired during crawling.
Letting the baby investigate the kitchen cupboards – he or she will learn much about the relative sizes of objects and improve control in hand movements.

Co-ordination of eyes and hands is now well developed and your child will probably begin walking.

Playing will small objects like building blocks and simple puzzles to improve precision in movement and aid small muscle development.
Climbing
The use of a tricycle or rocking horse to increase co-ordination of the eyes, hands and feet.

Reading or telling stories to improve the child’s ability to understand visual information and prepare for learning to read.
Drawing, painting and colouring for development of accurate hand movements.

Encourage your child to have a break from close work every 20 minutes, to move about and relax the eyes.

By the age of three years, a thorough optometric examination will reveal any tendency toward squint (crossed eyes), shortsightedness or longsightedness. It will also check that your child is acquiring the many visual skills necessary for complete development. This examination provides an important record with which to compare later performance and enables better evaluation of symptoms that might occur as the child grows older.

Optometrists’ professional skills linked with your own active participation will ensure that your child realises his or her full visual potential.