Visual awareness is important for young children. Looking with care is one half of the development of attention skills; the other half is good listening. Young children need to use their eyes as a major source of information to support their early language, or else it is very difficult for them to make sense of words for objects and people. Vision is also crucial to support physical skills such as walking and running and holding objects.
0-12 months
Newborn babies can see clearly up to about a metre away. Beyond that point the world is fuzzy. They see in colour and have clear preferences for high-contrast objects, like striped and chequered patterns. They are also born with a strong preference for homing in on human faces.
Very young babies use their eyes to follow movement. This is known as visual tracking. When they have greater muscle control, they move their whole head and then their body to follow interesting objects, people and events. Up to about three months of age, babies seem to track where objects are, since they look mostly at the edges. Then babies look very carefully at what things are, and stare at the details of an object. Older babies can be very active visually: watching people or pets, holding an object that they examine with their eyes as well as their fingers.
1-2 years
Toddlers will combine their new-found mobility and fine physical skills - being able to do things with their hands - to look at items out of their immediate reach, to go and fetch and explore in detail. They enjoy games of 'Where's the...?' with partially hidden toys and parts of the body. Older toddlers, who have enjoyed books with adults, will now be ready to look for details in the illustrations. Children of this age understand how pointing to objects directs someone else's gaze and helps them choose books or food. You can observe how visual awareness supports toddlers' memory when they point out the picture of a familiar object or recognise a toy they have at home or in the nursery. A sight that is out of the ordinary will amuse them.
2-3 years
At this age children can be very adept at spotting small details in pictures and will enjoy finding them with an adult. They will now be more able to scan a large picture or a room, looking from one part to another in a deliberate way. Their visual attention to small details helps them to feed and dress themselves. Close visual attention also helps children to manage jigsaws, arts and crafts and construc-tion. These activities need physical skills, but careful looking is equally important.
Two-to three-year-olds will show visual memory - for instance, they will recognise local landmarks when you are out walking. They can make visual comparisons to enable them to understand some aspects of 'same' and 'different' -the only way that young children can grasp ideas like colour or shape. They can look, recall and imitate what they have seen, so they enjoy simple physical games like 'Simon says'.
Ensure you always do the following:
* Be close to very young babies; they need to be able to focus on your face and to home in on your smile.
* Join in with what catches the attention of babies, toddlers and young children. Sometimes you will say 'Look at that!', but show interest in what they are looking at just as often.
* Make it easy for under-threes to look. They need an interesting environment, but not one that is over-cluttered.
* Make sure you have regular outings. These help young children to anticipate, see and recall. The experience also gives them practice in looking at near, middle and longer distances.
* Enjoy 'Spot the...' games with older toddlers and two-year-olds. Help them to look, scan and find with illustrations in books, posters and seek-and-find games for toys or parts of their own body.
* Be aware if the behaviour of babies and toddlers is very different from what is described in this feature. Sometimes, you may need to encourage the looking skills of young children and then all will be fine. But some children may have some degree of visual loss and your care may alert everyone to this situation.
* This feature can be photocopied for early years practitioners and parents of under-threes
