Vision and Hearing Development: Precursors for Play
Hearing and vision milestones are key for later language and speech development. A pediatric speech pathologist and mom explains how to support and what to look for.
Starting around 4 months, babies start the fun, sometimes messy, and often loud process of exploring the relationship between cause and effect. This means that babies will start learning that one action or event will cause another to happen. Basically, they start to explore the laws of physics. All of that fun development starts with auditory and vision development.
Listening begins in utero —
An infant’s hearing is fully developed at birth and will begin to react to sounds in the womb, which is pretty incredible to think about.
They will start the process of listening and hearing while in utero. Some studies have found that infants show signs that they recognize a familiar voice and react by calming. This is in part why speaking to a baby in utero is important — it helps them to become acquainted with the voice and speech patterns of their caregivers. You can read more about it in this blog post.
Though hearing is fully developed at birth, newborns don’t explore the source of a sound at birth or understand what is making a sound. Infants are more reactive to noises, startling when they hear louder sounds and often quieting when hearing a calming sound. This is one reason you will see many caregivers making ‘shushing’ noises to calm an overstimulated or tired baby. Nowadays, they make portable white noise machines to attach to a baby’s stroller or basinet which are pretty effective too.
Investigating and exploring sounds comes later —
Starting at about 3–4 months, a baby will actively turn their head or body towards the source of a sound and will listen to and be interested in sounds in their environment. A noticeable decrease in the generalized startle response happens at this age and babies will often be stimulated by and interested in what we would consider background noise. The hum of the dishwasher, the neighbor’s dog barking, the delivery truck driving in the street — it is all new to them and it is all interesting. At this point, you will see a baby look for a voice or noise that they hear and focus on it.
Vision takes time to develop —
Unlike the hearing mechanism, an infant’s eyes aren’t fully functional at birth. An infant’s eyes work together as a unit at about 2 months, they are able to visually focus at about 2-3 months, and will track a moving object by 3 months. They develop depth perception after this at about 5 months. Infants see high-contrast colors such as black and white and high contrast patterns such as stripes before they see and process other colors such as pastels.
Pro tip: if you want to be a new baby’s favorite, wear a black and white striped or polka dot shirt when you hold them. They will be interested in visually exploring the pattern.
Once vision is better established babies start to look around and grab —
Once a baby is able to visually focus and track, a baby will start to explore by reaching for a toy or object close and in their line of sight. They will start to interact with a mobile or a playmat by pushing a toy and watching it move. At about 4 to 6 months of age, it is common for babies look at and visually inspect a toy while holding it and they will likely put whatever they can reach in their mouth. This is the stage when babies will grab clothing, hair or earrings while being carried or snuggled to inspect it.
Pro tip: be careful what is in the baby’s line of sight — if they can reach it, they will taste it. A cute fashion accessory can quickly become a choking hazard so beware.
What happens next? Play!
Once an infant has laid down the visual and auditory developmental foundations, around 4–6 months, they will begin to interact with their world. It’s a super exciting and social time — they become interactive and aware of their surroundings.
Play will be both independent exploration and social play.
- Independent play might include banging a rattle and to listen to the sound it makes, kicking a mobile to watch it move, and exploring their own voices.
- Social play is important at this time and is a great way to bond with the baby. Playing peekaboo, singing songs, reading books, and dancing to music were favorites of my babies.
This is the time where babies begin to meet necessary milestones that are precursors to speech, language, and play skills. Check out some more recommendations for developmental stimulation at this age here.
What if I’m not sure if my baby is seeing or hearing me?
If there is any concern that your baby is not responding to sights or sounds in their environment, call the pediatrician — don’t wait. The idea of waiting for the child to catch up on their own, the ‘Wait and See’ approach, though at one time was popular, has not been found to be effective for language development.
Pro tip: the ‘Wait and See’ approach is very outdated with regards to language development and definitely does not apply to hearing and vision. Call the pediatrician right away with any concerns.
Overall, it’s important to remember that children develop at different rates and milestones are reached, in general, in within a range. No two children are the same and the ranges presented above are a guideline. Regardless of how old the baby is, playing with, singing and reading to a baby is alway a good idea. Make sure the environment around them is safe to explore and call the pediatrician if you have any concerns with your child’s development.
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