Activities for Visual Development

Distance
For the young baby, hold objects 8-12 inches (20-30cm) from babies face. Interesting enough, this about the distance from moms chest to face! Initially, you can choose brightly contrasting colors and then you can introduce other colors as baby gets older.

Faces
Babies are fascinated by faces. Researchers think that babies are programed to be attracted to the human face, to ensure survival. Exaggerate facial expressions and wait for baby to respond. As mentioned in a previous post, have mom wear eye make-up and lipstick to highlight features and make sure that mom and dad are well lit and do not blend into the background (contrast clothing you wear with background colors).

Play Visual Tracking Games
Attract baby's attend to an interesting object (his favorite rattle, keys on a ring/puppet etc) and then move it slowly in an arc horizontally across the line of vision. See how far baby can follow with his/her eyes! Try to move slowly and smoothly, slightly ahead of, but in pace with baby's eye and head movements. If baby loses track of the object, pause and let him catch up, or bring it back to where he is looking and try again. Once baby has mastered this, you can move the object in a vertical direction. Don't have a toy on hand?......use your finger!

Vary your baby's position during daily activities
For example, if baby has a "certain spot" where he eats, plays, has his diaper changed and always faces the same wall, vary this on a regular basis, so that he can face the other wall/other direction. Add a mobile above his diaper changing area, place visually stimulating pictures on walls, switch sides when bottle feeding etc. Please keep in the mind the well known concept of putting baby "Back to Sleep and Tummy Awake", meaning always place your baby on his back to sleep (do not vary this!) and offer plenty of opportunities for tummy time during his awake periods, under full supervision. More on Tummy Time during the month of June.

Tip
Position yourself so that you are face-to-face with your baby. Try to get down to his/her level literally. If baby is on the floor, get down on the floor with him.