A baby's vision goes through many changes during their first year of life. Your pediatrician will check your infant’s vision at each well-child visit. They make sure your baby's vision is developing as it should. Knowing what to expect can help you watch and enjoy your child’s visual development. Show
A word about premature babiesWe base the vision development milestones below on your baby's due date, not based on the date they were born. Newborns: adjusting to light and beginning to focusAt birth, an infant is very sensitive to bright light. You may notice how small their pupils look, limiting how much light enters their eyes. A newborn baby can see something next to them with their peripheral (side) vision, but their central vision is still developing. Within a couple of weeks, as their retinas develop, a baby’s pupils widen. They can see light and dark ranges and patterns. Large shapes and bright colors may begin to attract their attention. A baby also may begin to focus on an object right in front of them. At about 1 month, your baby may focus briefly on you but may still prefer brightly colored objects up to 3 feet away. Infants are able to see across a room even at birth, but they are mostly interested in objects very close to them. From 2 to 4 months: focusing and tracking moving objectsFor their first 2 months, babies' eyes often do not work together very well. You might notice your baby's eyes appear to be crossed or they may seem to wander out to the sides. In most cases, this is normal and they will eventually correct themselves. But if one of your baby's eyes constantly turns in toward their nose or outward away from the nose, talk with your pediatrician. At about 2 months old, babies usually are able to follow a moving object with their eyes as their visual coordination improves. In fact, at around 3 months old, your baby may have enough eye and arm coordination to bat at a nearby moving object. At 3 months old, your baby's eyes should work together to focus and track objects. If you do not notice this happening, talk with your pediatrician. From 5 to 8 months: reaching, recognizing, and recallingAt around 5 months old, a baby's ability to see how far an object is from them (called depth perception) has developed more fully. They are seeing the world in 3 dimensions (3-D) more completely. They get better at reaching for objects both near and far. They also have good color vision at this point, though not quite as fully developed as an adult's. At this stage, a baby may recognize their parent across a room and smile at them. They can see objects outside when looking through a window. They might even remember what an object is even if they only see part of it. Babies generally start crawling at around 8 months old, and this further enhances their hand-eye coordination. From 9 to 12 months: gripping, grasping and on the goAt about 9 months old, babies can generally judge distance pretty well. This is about when they start to pull themselves up to stand. Your baby's eyes are probably their final color now. However, it is not uncommon to see some slight changes later. At around 10 months old, babies can usually see and judge distance well enough to grasp something between their thumb and forefinger. By 12 months old, most babies are crawling and trying to walk. Steps to make sure your child's eyes and vision develop properlyEye or vision problems can delay a baby's development. It is important to find these problems as early as possible so you can get them the help they need to grow and learn properly. Parents should take these important steps:
Age-Appropriate Vision MilestonesVision problems may be suspected in children who are not responding to their environment properly. The following are some age-related guidelines that may help to decide if your child is having problems. It is important to remember that not every child is the same, and some children may reach milestones at different ages. Consult your child's doctor if you are suspicious that your child is not seeing correctly or is having other problems with his or her vision. Milestones related to vision or seeing
Which statement about the visual acuity of infants is accurate quizlet?Which statement about the visual acuity of infants is accurate? Children reach the level of 20/20 vision by about 6 months of age.
Which of the following reflexes demonstrates that infants can feel touch?The palmar grasp reflex is elicited by placing an object or the examiner's finger in the palm of the infant's hand; this leads to an involuntary flexion response. This reflex subsides by 3 to 6 months of age and is replaced by voluntary grasping, which is necessary to allow transfer of objects from hand to hand.
What preference method is used to determine when infants can distinguish one stimulus from another?Researchers measure the amount of time infants spend looking at two stimuli in a visual preference paradigm. If infants spend more time looking at one stimulus than another, researchers can infer that infants can discriminate between the stimuli and prefer to look at one versus the other.
Which of the following have been associated with shorter duration of infant sleep?Sleep parenting behaviors, such as putting an infant to bed asleep versus drowsy, parental presence in the room where the child sleeps, and lack of a bedtime routine, are associated with shorter sleep duration in infancy, as is having a later bedtime [13, 17–19].
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