A newborn baby spends most of the day sleeping and wakes up for very little time on average each day. According to the pattern of his work and rest, at the time of his awakening, the baby will be able to see and hear. Loves to look at faces, but is somewhat nearsighted and sees most clearly at a distance of 20 cm. Can recognize the color red and likes to look at moving things. How can you attract your baby to look at faces? The mother uses loving words while moving her head to attract the baby’s gaze. When the baby looks, try to slowly move the position of the head and the baby will turn his head to catch up with the gaze. Talk to your baby with kind eyes and gentle language when your baby is awake, especially when your baby is breastfeeding, and communicate with your baby face to face. If you tease often, the child’s expression of being amused will appear earlier. Newborns like to look at red and active things, use a red ball about 20 cm from his eyes to gently shake, when the baby gazes at the red ball, slowly move the red ball, the baby’s eyes can follow the red ball. Look at pictures, babies like to see contrasting patterns, most like to see black and white pictures, such as; black and white concentric circles, checkerboard or a simple pattern of human faces. If the newborn or 1-2 months old baby can not gaze how to train? The rapid visual development of infants is concentrated in the first few months of life, therefore, special attention should be given to the visual function of infants at this stage and it is very important to intervene early if abnormalities in visual function are detected. When a baby is found to be unable to gaze at or track faces, or to respond only to bright light stimuli, a thorough ophthalmologic examination and visual testing should be performed. If it is determined that there are no abnormalities in the fundus opticus and that the problem may be a disorder in the higher visual pathways, rehabilitation intervention should begin immediately. To enable maximum visual development, in our experience, the earlier the intervention, the better the results. Visual stimulation methods are as follows: 1. Reflex stimulation In a dark room, with the child lying on his back, shine a flashlight on the child’s left eye, right eye, below the right eye, and below the left eye (or right first and then left),
Shine the flashlight on the lower part of the eye to have a gap time, maintain the irradiation time of each point for 1 second, 5 times in a row as a group, 20-30 groups/day (this method is used when the child does not respond to finding the light source, chasing the red light and when the response is weak). 2. Red light stimulation In a dark room, with the child lying on his back, place a flashlight wrapped in red cloth about 20 cm above the child’s eyes, that is, shine red light into the child’s eyes to attract the child to look at the red light, and then move the flashlight horizontally to allow the child to look after it. Repeat for 1 minute each time, 10-20 times/day. (This method is used when the child’s response to finding a light source is weak and does not respond to red light chasing). 3, black and white pictures, toys, stimulation in a well-lit room, the child lying on his back, with black and white pictures, red balls, toys, etc. placed 20 cm above the child’s eyes, you can slightly adjust the picture distance, so that the child look at the picture, and then move the picture in the horizontal direction, so that the child chasing. The size of the pictures and toys can be adjusted according to the child’s gaze and chasing. (This method is used when the child can find the light source and chase the red light but has poor gaze and chasing of pictures and toys). 4. Bio-visual stimulation 1) Look at the speaker’s face, the tester makes a soft and beautiful voice and exaggerates the smile to attract the child’s attention. The child is encouraged to look at the face for a longer period of time by looking at the child and communicating with the child’s voice. 2) To improve the child’s ability to perceive multi-directional visual stimuli, the tester makes a beautiful sound for the child to look at, while moving the speaker’s face and attracting the child’s eyes to look at it. Warm tips: The specific operation should be carried out by professional rehabilitation personnel for an appropriate time every day, so as to ensure the quality of visual stimulation. Parents should be instructed to do it repeatedly during the baby’s waking hours. Active parental efforts in visual stimulation play a decisive role in restoring vision, because parents have the longest contact time with their babies and can use any waking hours to do visual stimulation, which can maximize the effect of visual recovery.