Do babies see the world like we do? Here are 3 questions about infant vision

Mélanie Faure 9:21 p.m., September 08, 2021

INTERVIEW

This is a question that many parents ask themselves: what are the visual abilities of newborns?

Are they blind for the first few weeks?

Do they see the world as adults see it?

Guest of the program

on Europe 1, Wednesday, the neuropsychologist Sylvie Chokron disentangles the true from the false on this topic unknown to parents.

Are babies blind at birth?

“Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers thought babies were born blind. It's been said a lot that babies don't see the first forty days of life. It's completely wrong: if babies don't. neither have the visual acuity nor the visual field of an adult, they have a visual acuity of 1 / 20th. We remind you that the normal is 10 / 10th. Their restricted visual field is enough for them to see faces anyway. in front of them, important information, strong contrasts, etc. And the vision will develop. Thanks to research in Babylabs (research laboratories in maternity hospitals), we know that babies can detect faces, emotions , the movements of the lips. And that's not all: they can associate the vision, thehearing and other senses and have a form of digital intuition. "

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Do newborns have visual preferences?

"Yes. They like to look at faces, for example, but not just any face. It has to be a real face that moves, makes faces, has emotions. And if it's not a face, then they will turn to highly contrasting black and white stimuli. However, there are stimuli they are not interested in at all. This is the case, for example, if you place them in front of a uniform blue wall. blue are the ones that mature later. Eye contact is crucial for the development of social interactions. It also allows the newborn to learn articulatory movements. And this is how he will also develop the skills to speak, read, write or even count. "

When should you be worried about your baby's sight?

"We are worried if the baby has no interest, no visual appetite, that he does not explore his environment and especially if he does not look at his father or his mother. Between 0 and 3 months, a baby who does not look, it is not that he does not want to look, but that he cannot look. In this case, we draw up an ophthalmic check-up, or even more, because it is the brain that makes it possible to see. From one month on, we can even draw up an ophthalmological or neuro-visual assessment. "