Sight and Vision in Infants

Babies are curious about everything around them, right from their very birth. They love to look at bright colors in the crib and their mom's smiling face again and again. Amongst the first few things that babies learn to recognize is their mother's face, as she feeds and nurses them. In fact, the most preferred sight for a baby comprises of his/her mother's face, as he/she feels the safest with her. This serves as the first step in the bonding process between a mother and her child. As a baby's vision sharpens, he/she learns to recognize his/her dad, sibling (if any), grandparents and other caregivers and family members, eventually even the pets and frequent visitors to the house. Let us know more about what babies can see & understand.

Sight Development In A Baby

In the initial days that follow their birth, babies see everything in mainly black and white. It is only after they become two weeks old that they start acquiring the ability to distinguish colors. Still, their color vision is not as rich and sensitive as adult and improves over time.

Babies seem to find people's faces most interesting and tend to read and observe them for a long time. It has also been seen that familiar faces and surroundings make a baby feel secure and reassured.

Within a few months of their birth, babies start recognizing face expressions and even attribute them to certain feelings. They understand facial expressions much better than words and may try to imitate them too.

It has been observed that infants also love to see pictures of other babies. They will even be fascinated when they look at themselves, either in a mirror or in pictures.

Babies are much smarter than most people believe them to be and they tend to notice changes in the scenery as well as any changes that you make in the home décor. It might be the reason why some babies resist a change in their surroundings, such as moving the crib to another position or repainting a wall or shifting houses. In such a case, you may have to soothe them until they start feeling comfortable in the new setting.

Like adults, babies are also able to see everything around them. However, in the first few weeks after their birth, they do not have very good control of their ciliary muscles and thus, are not able to focus correctly. It is only after about 2 months of age that infants are able to see clear images.

In the initial stage of their life, babies are not able to see images as clearly as adults. The reason for this is that their retina as well as their brain area that is responsible for vision is not fully developed. It by eight months that they have a vision almost as good as adults.

In the first month, babies are able to distinguish between two shades of gray that have 5% contrast, or differ by only 5% in gray level. However, by the time they are 2 months old, they can perceive almost all the subtle shadings that make this world so rich and textured.