Understanding your baby’s visual skills

You may have concerns about your baby’s vision or have recently received a diagnosis of visual impairment and are unsure how to help your baby to play and develop. Below are some of our suggestions but remember that you are the experts regarding your baby and know them the best.

You may have been allocated a Qualified Teacher of Visually Impaired children who will be able to help you get to know your baby’s vision. Qualified Teacher of Visually Impaired children will support your baby – it doesn’t begin from school age.

If you’re unsure whether your child will meet the criteria for specialist Qualified Teacher of Visually Impaired children support then you can either ask the Sensory Support Team directly through your local council website or ring our Telephone Support Line where we will be able to assist you.

Your Qualified Teacher of Visually Impaired children may introduce you to the Developmental Journal for babies and children with a visual impairment. This will enable you both to work together to monitor and stimulate your baby’s development.

Finally remember that babies have good days and bad days, good times of day and bad times of day, much like us adults do and like us adults, babies are individual to each other so try not to compare.

We have our Families First team of trained Family Practitioners who can support you through these early months and years to help you feel confident with your child’s diagnosis and future.

What am I looking for?

• Try to observe their play over a range of times and days.
• Watch how they hold toys and how close they choose to sit to the TV or computer/tablet screen.
• Some babies naturally find a position to hold a toy at what we may think is an odd angle but this could be their best way to look and focus on it.
• Consider the lighting in the room as some baby’s actually find a darker room more comfortable to be able to open their eyes fully than in a bright room.
• Sometimes a baby’s close vision may not be affected but you may notice that your baby struggles to see you enter a room.
• If your baby’s peripheral vision is affected then it will be similar to looking through 2 narrow tubes for them, also called tunnel vision. They may not notice items or people at the side to them.
• Alternatively their central vision may be affected and so they may not look as though they are looking directly at you or toys but turning their head to one side or even only seeing the lower/bottom field of their vision or upper/higher field.

We have our Families First team of trained Family Practitioners who can support you through these early months and years to help you feel confident with your child’s diagnosis and future.