According to Wythe Eye Associates, there are 5 visual skills that are vital to a child's ability to learn, retain information and use their skillsets in appropriate circumstances. These include focusing, tracking, eye teaming, visual perception, and hand-eye coordination.
During the first few months of a baby's life, it's so important to stimulate them visually! Playing peek-a-boo, introducing them to a Play Gym, or holding sensory toys and objects in front of them for exposure helps them develop tracking and focusing skills. And as their eyes work in collaboration with one another to follow objects and people, they develop their eye teaming skills.
As they develop further, doing activities that encourage and support eye teaming helps enhance their vision. A toy like the Punch & Drop invites littles to focus on the balls as they're hammered down into their slots. Once they're able to grip the hammer on their own alongside other objects in front of them, hand-eye coordination is present!
Lastly, visual perceptual skills enable young children to accurately interpret what they see and cognitively picture what they hear. This is the imagination and logical mind at work simultaneously! When children can distinguish the difference between two objects or people that look similar, or can imagine what their parents are telling them as a bedtime story, visual perception is at play.
Do you witness your child beginning to develop these visual skills? How are you incorporating play into their newborn growth stages?
