Babies can see from birth, but their vision is initially blurry and limited. Here's a timeline of their visual development:
- At birth, babies can see light, shapes, and faces but can focus best on objects about 8 to 12 inches away, roughly the distance to a caregiver's face when feeding. Their visual acuity is very poor (around 20/640), meaning they see much less clearly than adults.
- By 1 to 3 months, babies start to focus better, looking more at faces and tracking moving objects.
- Around 3 to 4 months, color vision improves significantly, and babies can distinguish colors and shades. They also gain better depth perception.
- By 4 months, babies have clearer vision, better distance vision, and use both eyes together (binocular vision).
- By 5 months, babies generally have good color vision and begin to see in three dimensions (depth perception). Eye coordination and eye-body coordination continue improving.
- By 8 to 12 months, babies can judge distances fairly well and see clearly both near and far. They can focus on fast-moving objects and have good hand-eye coordination.
- Full adult-like vision typically develops around 3 to 5 years of age.
In summary, babies see more clearly and colorfully by about 4 to 5 months, and by 1 year, their vision is quite well developed for everyday activities.
