We all know eye movements are a very basic part of the process of seeing. If you stop to think about it, it is really quite remarkable that, even though we look out at the world through two eyes, each eye having a slightly different point of view, the world still appears as one, not two, or like that of a "double exposure". Whether you look left, right, up or down, your eyes are coordinated to move together so perfectly that the world stays as one fused picture. Babies' eye movements and coordination rapidly mature over the first three months of life. This eye muscle coordination is important for eventually developing eye-hand coordination, depth perception, detailed visual acuity and contrast sensitivity.

For the first two months of life, infants' eyes are not well coordinated; one eye may "wander"; or the eyes may appear to be crossed (turned in toward the nose, or out) at times. This is normal for a newborn. If, however, after three months you notice an eye wander continually, or turn in or out for long periods of time, you should consult our office. If possible it would be helpful if we had some photographs of your baby that show the problem, since eye-wandering can be intermittent. By 3 months of age, infants' eyes are usually very well coordinated.

Newborn infants will follow an object with their eyes (this is tracking) if the object is large enough, has enough contrast, and is moving at just the right speed (not too fast or too slow). However, their eyes will tend to follow the object with "jerky" motions. They will not always track, especially if they are in a room with lots of activity, or if there are other things to look at. By 3 months of age they are able to follow an object with smooth eye motions, as long as it is not moving too fast. Until then they will look lost in space with improvement every month.

We are probably not born with depth perception. The image of the world that is focused on the retina is flat dimensional, and not 3-dimensional. Our rich 3-D view of the world requires that the brain interpret the images from each eye to create the 3 rd dimension. This requires visual experience, good muscle coordination of the two eyes, and sufficient maturity of the nerve cells in the retina and brain. Images must be focused on the retina so large refractive errors; nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism will definitely play a role in the maturity of the entire visual system. Recent research has shown that infants can first develop fine depth perception at 3 to 5 months of age.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota in the 1970s found that newborn infants will tend to look at the borders of objects, especially high-contrast borders. Thus, when looking at human face, a newborn will look at the hairline or edge of the face. By 2 months of age, infants begin to pay more attention to internal features of the face such as eyes, and mouth, and by 4 to 5 months of age they can and do recognize your face from all others in the world. If your infants eyes continue to "wander" or one eye turns in or out it is important to have them evaluated during the fourth or fifth month of life.

Although their vision is not as good as adults', research shows that babies have a rich and well-organized visual system. By 8 months of age babies can have acuity that's within a factor of two (2) of adult acuity. However, their sensitivity to light and dark and subtle shading (contrast sensitivity) improves 4 times faster than their visual acuity. By 8 to 9 weeks (not 8 to 9 months) of age, your baby will be able to distinguish two shades of gray that differ by only ½% in brightness, about half as good as adult sensitivity! In the first month of life a baby can see many colors, although he or she might not be able to tell the difference between pastel colors. As the nervous system matures, especially in the fovea, color vision and acuity will improve and begin to approach adult levels of vision.

In addition to all the sensory and perceptual changes your baby experiences during the first several months of life, there is a significant increase in physical size and coordination during this time of development. This requires constant readjustment in order to preserve the accuracy of vision, eye movements and eye-hand coordination. Imagine trying to learn to hit a tennis ball or a baseball if your arms and legs were constantly changing in size and strength. Thus, the first year of life is a critical period of development, involving many complex changes necessary to create the rich experience of vision. To ensure your babies development will be a healthy one, visit our office for a complimentary vision analysis through the INFANT SEE program. Call one of our locations today for details. Stillwater can be reached @ 405-372-1715 and Pawnee @ 918-762-2573.