Babies develop and grow at a rapid pace during their first year of life and there are many things you can do to help fire off those brain connections! Visual stimulation is an important developmental stage which you can help strengthen very easily.
Research has shown that the retina of a newborn baby isn’t fully developed and that simple, high contrast, black and white images are a great way to help develop their eyesight. While adults can distinguish the differences between hundreds of different shades and colours, a newborn baby can only distinguish between stark contrasts such as black and white.
I created a set of 16 black and white, high contrast cards for you to use around your home to provide that important visual input. You might like to place these cards on the wall next to your change table or your safe play space so that baby can view the images and strengthen their eyes. You’ll be amazed at how long your baby will look at the images! Ideally, you should place the cards within 20-30cm from your baby as they can’t focus much further than that.
You can pop in your details below to grab your set for free! I’d love to see how you use these cards (or any of the other goodies in the library) so please do share them on instagram and tag me using my #littlelifelonglearners hashtag!
What’s up, all is going nicely here and ofcourse every one is sharing information, that’s really
excellent, keep up writing.
Greetings,
The download button isn’t working for me. I don’t have a pop up blocker on.
Hi,
I work for a registered charity Called Dudley Lodge Family assessment centre. We have families with newborn babies and young children come to out centre for a 12 week assessment. I have previously printed out the contrast cards and I would like to continue using them as the residents are finding them very useful for tracking.
I am having problems downloading the cards.
Can you please let me know whether it is because I have downloaded them previously this is why I am having problems please.
Hey Casey! I'm currently a graduate speech-language pathology student in my final semester of school. While doing research into neuro-development of infants, I've come across your article and others emphasizing the importance of high-contrast visual stimulation. I'm having difficulty locating experimental research evidencing this topic. Can you point me in the right direction as where to find these studies and articles? I would love to suggest this easy to use practice to future parents!
P.S. Love your sensory play ideas!
Thanks (: