Vision
Your baby's vision will go through many changes the first month. Your baby was born with peripheral vision (the ability to see to the sides), and they'll gradually acquire the ability to focus closely on a single point in the center of his visual field. They like to look at objects held about 8 to 15 inches in front of them, but by one month they'll focus briefly on things as far away as three feet.
At the same time, they'll learn to follow, or track, moving objects. To help him practice this skill you can play tracking games with them. For example, move your head slowly from side to side as you hold him facing you; or pass a patterned object up and down or side to side in front of them (making sure it's within his range or focus). At first they may only be able to follow large objects moving slowly through an extremely limited range, but soon they'll be tracking even small, speedy movements.
At birth, your baby was extremely sensitive to bright light, and his/her pupils were constricted (small) to limit the amount of light that entered hi/her eyes. Around two weeks the pupils will begin to enlarge, allowing the experience on a broader range or shades of light and dark. As the retina (the light-sensitive tissue inside the eyeball) develops, the ability to see and recognize patterns also will improve.
The more contrast there is in a pattern, the more it will attract baby's attention, which is why they are most attentive to black-and-white pictures or high-contrast patterns, such as sharply contrasting stripes, bull's-eyes, checks, and very simple faces.
If you show your infant three identical toys-one blue, one yellow, one red-they probably will look longest at the red one, although no one yet understands why. Is it the color red itself? Or is it the brightness of this color that attracts newborn babies? We do know that color vision doesn't fully mature until about four months, so if you show your baby two related colors, like green and turquoise, they probably can't tell the difference at this age.
Credits: Carol Gindi
