Infant Development: Vision

Students are always amazed when I explain to them that infants are born very nearsighted.  Normal vision is 20/20 but aBlack.and.White baby is born with 20/200 and 20/400 vision. Over the course of the first year a baby’s vision will improve and they will eventually see things the way everyone else does. This lesson has students independently exploring how sight develops in infants, the role caregivers can play to help stimulate it and finally, culminates with a mobile project fit for an infant!

Set

  • Ask students if they ever wonder what a newborn sees?  Explain that baby’s are born very nearsighted and can only see about 8-12 inches in front of them.
  • Show them the PPT illustrating and comparing what vision looks like from the adult perspective to the infant’s at various ages during the first year.

Materials

  • Laptops
  • Projector & Screen
  • Scissors & Mobile Supplies


Activities

  • Show students this video to get an overview about infant vision.
  • Assign students the Infant Development Vision graphic organizer activity to independently work through assigned websites to learn more about infant vision.
  • Finally, after students learn what types of visuals help stimulate an infant’s vision have them go to the Big Huge Labs website to create a cube for a mobile. Just scroll down to the “Cube” tab and upload six appropriate graphics to use to stimulate an infant’s vision and hit “create” and viola you have a cube template (see sample below) to print off and glue together.  Add to a mobile base such as a hanger or tissue box with yarn and have students join their cube with other classmates’ cubes to create mobiles to hang around the room.
  • Note:  The cubes can also be made by hand, using this template from TPT if you don’t have access to computer labs.

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