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A newborn sees and perceives the world a lot different than how we do. It is obviously understandable as they have the first time exposure to the outside environment , as opposed to our years of living in it. However, it is not just because of this reason. A baby’s senses haven’t yet developed to their full capacities and so remains the difference. While, touch and auditory senses are almost fully developed at the time of birth, the baby may not be ready yet to see and focus on the lovely views surrounding him. The visual sense, takes months to develop and mature. So, expecting him to remember and recognize you by your faces is too much to demand. If he still does identify the mother (or maybe the father as well), it is probably more by their sounds than their face, for those voices he’s acquainted with from a time long before the birth.
Now, the question is- how long will it take for the child to develop his visionary faculty completely, and can parents do anything to stimulate this particular sense? So the answer is, it does take months, and you cannot precisely tell how many. Stimulation works, and there are ways to do so. It is good and is recommended.
So here are 6 simple activities to stimulate your baby’s visual senses:
8 to 12 inches from the baby
Anything and everything, that you would want the baby to see must be placed 8 to 12 inches from him. Focusing on objects at any farther, or up close gets difficult for the child. By the end of 6 months the range will have increased significantly upto 15 to 20 feet.
Show them the “Black & White”
By making your baby look at the most contrasting shades together can greatly stimulate his vision. You may use black & white board books, or make one on your own. The more of such colors the baby will see the more his vision will thrive.
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Decorate the nursery with bright and bold patterns
This way the baby will have bright colors meeting his eyes anywhere he looks around. Try keeping away from colors merging, there should be bright, bold and distinct patterns so that the child may distinguish between them.
Keep Changing the Crib/Bassinet position
This is done to change the view for the child. By changing the position of the crib, or also of the baby inside, frequently, he is exposed to seeing things from different angles. A great stimulant indeed.
Stripe it
Babies respond to stripes soon. The color contrast does the trick again. So get them some striped car set toys, covers, striped curtains, cushion covers etc. for them to engage with. You will notice that stripes attract the baby’s attention instantly. The thinner the stripes go, the more the child will to focus.
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Play Peekaboo
Games like peekaboo, patty cake, hide and seek can be started when the child is above 3-4 months, as by now they should be tracking objects with his eyes. These will stimulate their sight further, as they begin to identify things, objects and faces.
By the time your child will start crawling, his visual capabilities would have significantly improved and he will begin to grab on the distantly placed objects too as they will now be able to judge the distance by the sight (size) of objects and have greatly enhanced hand-eye co-ordination.
