Eyes that see well; full colour, depth, beauty & movement
Level 1
Millions of visual joys.
Sight provides information about where we are, where we are going, and whether the environment consists of well manicured lawn, dense jungle, dangerous caverns, water puddles, daylight, city streets or other sights. Sight allows us to identify our family, friends and business associates close up and from a distance. And sight allows us to experience the delights of colour, line, design, sculptures, paintings, sunrises, stars, mountain ranges, rivers, lakes, fish, animals and literally millions of other visual joys. Sight allows surgeons to see and to understand where they are working inside the human body and sight allows plumbers, carpenters and bricklayers to see what work they need to do to commence and complete building and maintenance jobs. Life without sight is difficult and life with excellent eyesight is much more enjoyable and easier. For that reason natural parents create an environment that helps baby to carry out her ONSDEP to develop excellent eyesight.
Baby Learns to See.
Baby is likely to be blind at birth (there is some evidence that some children can probably see some bright lights) and she immediately begins her OMSDEP to develop her sight so that she will be able to see. Developing the ability to see, and learning to see well, takes some time. On average she will be able to see the outline or silhouette of people and objects at about 2.5 months of age and will recognise faces at about 7 months of age. But being able to fully see colours and to focus well (and to know that objects that can be seen are not always within reach) will on average take up to 12 or more months from birth.
How sight development begins.
Baby’s OMSDEP for sight development begins with the pupils in her eyes. They (the pupils that is) expand and contract as more or less light flows into them. Once this contraction and expansion begins in baby it will normally continue to occur for a lifetime. This effect can be seen in any child or adult with healthy eyesight by shining a torch into her eyes in a darkened room. This expansion and contraction is an automatic reflex action and it usually occurs thousands of times each day without being noticed by almost every child and adult on earth as she does it. This reflex occurs to let more or less light into the eyes and then into the nervous system including the brain. When the light signals travel into the brain they cause brain growth and they cause memories to be stored. Sight brain growth and sight memory storage occurs in a similar way to the brain growth and memory storage that occurs with hearing and the other senses.
From blindness to seeing.
As stated above, baby is likely to be blind at the time of birth. Her first step to develop her vision from blindness to seeing is to frequently use what is called her light reflex. Her light reflex allows a steady stream of light to flow into the pupils in her eyes so that a steady stream of light information is provided to her brain. The light reflex attempts to prevent the overexposing and underexposing of her brain to light but it still allows a range of brightness and darkness intensities to pass from the outside world, through her pupils, and into her brain. As a steady stream of light information finds its way into her brain over the first days, weeks and months of her new life she will begin to see; poorly at first and then more clearly and with understanding as time goes on.
At this early stage baby’s OMSDEP is to use the pupil’s light reflex (which expands and contracts the pupil to create a steady stream of light for her brain) as often as possible. The occasionally fluctuating but generally steady stream of light information received by her brain should then cause her brain to grow and develop the ability to see a wide range of contrasts of light and dark. An environment that encourages frequent expansion and contraction of the pupils to regulate the flow of light to her brain promotes the natural development that allows her to soon be able to see and understand her vision at this Level 1.
Natural sight development depends on the environment.
If baby is kept in a dark room from the time of birth she will still be essentially blind if released at 12 months of age and she will then begin to learn to see.
If a newborn or very young baby who cannot yet see is carried through an environment such as a small village or treed lane, where the sun shining through the trees creates patches of light and shade, then her pupils will frequently contract and enlarge as she passes through light areas and dark areas. Likewise, if she is carried through forests where rays of light filtering through the trees cause frequent changes in light intensity then once again her pupils will frequently contract and enlarge. If baby is lying where light intensity changes frequently due to changes in the thickness and presence of clouds then once again her pupils will frequently contract and enlarge. If baby’s eyes are turned towards and away from a fire, especially at night, then once again her pupils will frequently contract and enlarge. It is easy to see, then, that children who lived under natural conditions, such as in forests and with fires, had many opportunities for their light reflex to practice allowing a controlled flow of light into their brains. As the light reflex practices its work it significantly reduces the extent to which the brain can be overexposed or underexposed to light in much the same way as a camera regulates film exposure. The brain can then grow and develop the ability, over the coming months, to see and understand the steady stream of multicoloured light that is going to it through the pupil.
Consider now how much the light intensity would change for a child in a room lit by an electric light for 24 hours of the day. The answer is, of course, very little. A newborn or very young child who is kept indoors for a whole day in artificial light will not experience nearly as many changes in light intensity as a child who is outdoors in ideal conditions for sight development for a whole day. One way by which magnificentparent.com parents overcome the lack of light intensity changes that many modern children experience is to simply create their own light and dark. They do this by frequently switching an electric room light on and off while baby is awake. Another way by which magnificentparent.com parents recreate natural outdoor changes in light intensity is that they frequently shine a standard medical pen torchlight into and out of baby’s eyes.
Light entertainment for baby:
If baby could speak to us about how she feels about frequently having a light shone into and out of her eyes she would likely express her joy about the experience. As a form of entertainment for her, the gradual daily increase in the amount of light she sees each day is joyful. The event is, for her, similar to when adults watch the sun rise above the horizon into clear sky after a very dark night.
Baby’s visual development can be helped in two ways at this level:
Frequent changes in light levels (intensity) will help her light reflex to operate quickly.
Frequent changes in light levels (intensity) will help her brain to see and understand light and dark.
Helping baby’s light reflex to operate quickly and helping her brain to see and understand lightness and darkness should give her the ability called outline perception that is her next level of development. When she has outline perception baby is able to pick the difference between the less well lit and the better lit parts of any scene she is watching in the steady stream of light that her properly developed light reflex allows through to her brain.
Having outline perception is the next Level up from essentially blindness for baby, having outline perception is like living in a world of silhouettes. Essential blindness, and that world of silhouettes, is what almost every child and adult who can see well (including yourself) experienced in the months after birth.
Activities for parents and babies:
A list of Natural Parenting activities follows. These are practical activities for children to do with their parent’s help. Natural Parenting parents create the environment baby requires to complete her ONSDEP. In many cases, these activities are the environment required and, after commencement, promote baby’s excellent natural development.
The activity list sometimes includes extracts of preceding sections as well as new information. The list is intended for use as a day to day checklist for quick and easy reference but, to fully understand and participate in the activities, parents may need to re-read the entire Level, or other parts of this book, from time to time.
This is probably the best way in which you can be sure baby’s light reflex gets good stimulation that will eventually result in excellent vision:
In a darkened room (as dark as you can make it, perhaps in a large cupboard if that’s all that’s available) hold a medical pen torchlight about 150 mm from baby’s eyes and turn it on and shine it into her eyes for two seconds. Then turn the torch off for three seconds. Continue turning the torch on for two seconds and off for three seconds ten times. As the light is being shined into baby’s eyes say, “This is light”, when it is taken away say, “This is dark”. Do this ten times every day. Baby will then have 100 high quality light reflex expansions and contractions every day until she reaches the next level of development in about 4 to 6 weeks. A suitable torchlight is a standard type that uses two 1.5-volt batteries.
An alternative to using a torch in a dark room is to use an electric room light. Simply turn the room light off for three seconds and on for two seconds, ten times. And do this ten times each day. Remember to say, “This is light”, and, “This is dark”.
Carry your torch all day and use it ten times each day as described above.
The general environment:
The ideal visual environment at this level of development is one where light levels are continually changing. On bright sunny days while she is awake you can walk baby through treed lanes, where sunlight is freckled on the road as it lands between the shadows cast by branches and leaves. Likewise, you can walk with her under broken clouds or sit before a flickering fire. If you are short of time, suitable weather or places to give baby these natural experiences for visual development then you can easily create a suitable environment at home or wherever you happen to be by using a light switch or a medical pen torchlight.
What baby should be doing at this Level of development:
Opening her eyes when she is awake to allow light to enter. And her light reflex should be functioning.
Initially baby’s light reflex could be slow. If it is slow then it should improve by doing the expansion and contraction activities described above.
Baby’s light reflex should cause quick contraction of the pupil when exposed to light and the pupil should expand quickly when exposed to darkness.
If you are unsure about how quickly baby’s pupil should react then try the following. Compare baby’s light reflex expansion and contraction speeds with the light reflex expansion and contraction speeds of an adult who you know has good vision. Baby and the adult should have similar light reflex speeds.
Even when baby’s light reflex is up to speed continue to do the reflex activities described above until she develops outline perception.
What baby should be doing as she enters the next Level of development:
She will have ‘outline perception’. Outline perception means that baby can see the dark shadow like image or silhouette of a person or animal or other objects against a light background.
You will know when baby has outline perception because she will follow a person or animal across a room or other place with her eyes. When she does this several times she will have confirmed that she has moved onto the following level in vision development, Level 2.
It is important to check that baby is following a person or animal by sight and not by listening to the sounds that they make. If she is following a person or animal whilst they are silent then you can be sure that she has outline perception and she is not following them by listening to the sounds they make.
Also, once baby has developed outline perception she is likely to close her eyes if an object moves quickly towards her face in a well-lit room. If baby does close her eyes when an object moves quickly towards her face then this is further confirmation that she is at Level 2. But, it is sufficient for her to move to Level 2 if she demonstrates that she has outline perception as described above.
When she can do as above baby graduates to the next Level, Eyes That See Well Level 2. Click on the diploma below to move on to Level 2.
An average child is likely to move on to Level 2 at approximately age 2.5 months.
A Natural Parenting child could potentially move on to Level 2 at approximately age 1 month.