How babies see the world

What do babies see in the first few weeks after birth? Does vision develop gradually or is it fully developed right away? Can babies recognize objects or do they only see colors? Let's take a closer look at the question of what and how babies see the world. Because if you can see the world through a baby's eyes, you will suddenly understand much better what moves your little one.

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How babies look in the first few weeks after birth

Around the 28th week of pregnancy, babies open their eyes in their mother's womb. For the first time, the vague impressions behind closed eyelids become a concrete image. But of course the view in the womb is limited to a very small world. The sense of sight therefore has enough time to get used to the world and develop in peace.  

Babies still have a blurred view of the world

You have probably often heard the phrase that very old people sometimes take on very childlike features again. Although this is of course meant symbolically in most cases, there is a grain of truth in it. When it comes to "visual acuity", the different generations are certainly very close. In the first few weeks after birth, visual acuity is not yet as well developed as in adults. Babies still perceive their surroundings blurred during this time, as they are short-sighted and long-sighted at the same time during these weeks. This means that they can only "focus" in a tiny area, which is between 20 cm and 25 cm away. Parents often adopt this distance quite intuitively when they are looking at their child. Your baby can see you particularly well at this distance. 

How babies train their vision

Immediately after birth, our senses are not yet fully developed. We learn to trust them over time, because they - like our entire body - grow bigger and stronger every day. Vision becomes more complex, just as children slowly get used to the vastness and depth of the world. Focusing at different distances also works better and better as the months go by, so that they are soon able to see in three dimensions. But more on this later.
Your baby will soon learn to recognize and distinguish between things and people. The continuous training of the visual muscles is very strenuous. It can be so strenuous that some babies squint at times, as if we had overstrained our muscles during training.  

Babies love contrasts

Let's imagine what the world looks like to the baby before birth. The light is subdued and the light shines through the skin in gently merging shades of brightness. The baby lies safe and secure in its mother's womb, which also protects it from too many sensory impressions. It therefore does not seem so strange that the newborn is extremely sensitive to light in the first few weeks. The brain first has to get used to being constantly confronted with so many impressions. However, this happens relatively quickly because the nerve cells of the brain and our retina develop rapidly. The brain needs these cells for high-contrast vision.

So the first thing babies see are contrasts. They are almost magically attracted to black and white patterns. They also perceive their first color impressions at a very early age. The colors red, orange, yellow and green are among the first perceptible colors. Nevertheless, babies' world revolves around contrasts in the first few weeks.

If we can recognize and distinguish things clearly, the world becomes much easier to understand.

After about 4 weeks, the baby's optic nerve is already much more pronounced. It can now recognize contrasts well. It begins to follow interesting objects with its eyes.

Babies see double

Just how complex the process of seeing actually is can be clearly seen in the development of all the associated skills. Up to the age of around three months, babies see double. Both eyes transmit the same image to the brain and the baby is not yet able to combine the two images. In the third month, children then develop the ability to see in three dimensions. At the same time, other developmental processes take place in the body. For example, sensitivity to light decreases, while the sense of touch also develops. This is when hand-eye coordination develops: the baby then recognizes an object, can grasp it and soon learns to hold it.

How black and white becomes a color film

Although babies perceive their first impressions of color quite early in addition to contrasts, the real ability to see colors only develops after a few weeks. The diffuse perception then develops into a concrete sensory impression.

From the second month of life, the black and white film becomes an increasingly colorful world. Current studies show that particularly strong colors such as red and green, yellow and blue are among the colors that babies see and distinguish for the first time. Every child is different and every child has its own pace, so the timing can of course vary. If the baby is surrounded by many striking color impressions and strong contrasts, it collects many visual impressions and playfully learns to link its eyes and brain.

The sense of sight plays a decisive role in the development of various human abilities. It is through sight that young children begin to understand the world. Visual perception thus stimulates motor, mental and verbal development. Logically, interesting things arouse a child's curiosity and interest in the immediate surroundings. The baby begins to reach for exciting objects, holding them in his hands and practicing coordinating movements and eyes all the time. At some point, toddlers begin to move around, and their now well-trained vision continues to drive them to explore the world. 

Summary:
The developmental stages of vision