Watches what is happening around them

When they were born your baby focused best on people and objects that were close to them, around 20-30 cm away. Now, their vision is becoming clearer and they can focus on things that are further away. They can also control their posture and eye movements so are more able to watch what is happening around them.  

The development of vision 

Your baby’s vision when they were born will have been blurred and they will have focused best on objects and people that were close to them. They will have been able to look at objects and you might have noticed them looking more at faces or high contrast objects than at other objects. They will have found following an object with their eyes difficult and when they were watching an object you might have noticed their eye movements were not smooth. Your baby’s vision now will be clearer and they will be able to focus on objects further away, and track moving objects with their eyes more smoothly. 

As your baby watches what is happening around them, they will bring together information from their senses, so they will start to link what they hear with what they see.  

Watching and learning 

Watching what is happening around them helps your baby to learn about people, objects and events. As they pay more attention to the things that are happening, they will make links between objects, people and events. For example, they might begin to anticipate what is going to happen next based on what they see, so if they see you coming towards them with their coat they will know it is time to go out. [1] 

What next?  

Your baby’s visual skills will continue to develop, they will be able to look for a toy amongst a group of toys and will look more closely at things that interest them. Your baby will increasingly use their senses together to achieve their goals; for example, linking what they see, feel and their body awareness to stack toys and objects or to place an object in a particular position.  

References 

[1] Slater, A. (2001) Visual perception. In Bremner, J. & Foget, G. eds. Blackwell Handbook of Infant Development. Oxford: Blackwell, pp.5-34.