Visual Skills Development

The visual system of a newborn takes time to develop.  Although infants are born with all of the eye structures needed to see, they need to learn how to use them together.  Infants will spend much of their early months developing visual skills such as focusing, eye teaming, eye movements, depth perception, and eye-hand coordination.

The following visual abilities listed suggest typical visual development.  However, these are estimates.  You may find that your child has developed some of these skills at an earlier time than noted, and others may develop later.  The sequence of skill development may vary among some children. 

Visual development includes optical abilities, motor skills, discrimination, visual closure (ability to complete an incomplete image), sequencing, visual memory, imagery, and figure-ground perception (ability to notice a target against the background).

Warning Signs of a Vision Problem at Any Age

• Trouble moving eyes in all directions
• Eyes that jiggle quickly from side-to-side or up-and-down and cannot hold still
• One or both eyes turn in or out most of the time
• Pupil appears white
• Excessive tearing
• Extreme sensitivity to light
• Unusual redness of the eye or eyelid
• Excessive eye rubbing
• Keeping eyes closed much of the time
• Head tilting
• Bulging eye(s)
• Prematurity - premature infants are at a greater risk for astigmatism, myopia and strabismus (eye misalignment) 
• Any change in the appearance of the eyes

Contact Information

Find Early Intervention Support contacts in your State. If you have a question or comment for us, please visit our Contact page.

Early Intervention Helps with Developmental Delay

For children with Special Needs, intervention in early childhood development means finding specific ways to help a child become as functional as possible.

Learn more on our Parenting Tips page.

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