Perception of reliefs, colors, and visual field: from birth until the age of 5, your child’s sight continues to improve.
The sight of child progresses at the rate of his needs. Very restricted at birth, it was enough for him to see your face. Gradually, it allows him to take cues around him when he begins to move. He slightly appreciates the relief since his 4 months, he distinguishes the “primary” colors (red, blue, yellow) since his 6 months. The more his field of vision widens, the more he wants to explore its perimeter. And the more he explores, the more he demands his sight. Around the age of 5, his vision will be equivalent to that of an adult.
The world is seen by your child
At 1 year old, if he could read, your child could decipher a text but his still too limited sight (from afar, on the sides…) would prevent him from taking the driver’s license! It is at 2 years old that he acquires an apprehension of reliefs comparable to yours. In addition, it differentiates well between red, blue, yellow, and green if we take care to designate common objects to it by their color.
Vision defects
At the 24-month medical visit, your child undergoes a mandatory visual examination. The doctor shows him a series of familiar images, near and then from afar, and asks him to describe what he sees or to show an equivalent image. If in doubt, the further ophthalmological examination is advised.
Visual problems can be spotted long before this deadline. After the age of 4 months, persistent strabismus deserves medical advice: in 1% of cases, strabismus is due to the fact that one eye sees much less well than the other. If your little walker bumps a lot or is very clumsy, his eyesight may need to be corrected.
To identify a possible vision problem, you can show your child everyday objects in a picture book and ask him to locate them in the house. If your child is really uncooperative or makes a lot of mistakes, it may be because he has “blurry” vision.
About vision tests
To develop visual tests for toddlers, researchers use the technique of “preferential gaze”. This technique consists of presenting two cards with different patterns to the infant: for example, a red circle on one card and a black circle on the other. Depending on whether the child looks more willingly at one or the other card, we roughly determine what interests him and therefore what he sees. The test is repeated with a large number of babies to have a statistical value.
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