Normally speaking, a baby is ‘ready to go’ and very quickly becomes visually curious. A baby’s brain is geared to react to interesting light patterns – the patterns of life; it needs to be working, to be sorting out and making sense; if this becomes too difficult there can be a lull in activity and an interruption of normal development. Visual stimulation activities can help to kick-start the process.

Although these activities have been used for a couple of decades, recent research has led to greater understanding of what is going on in the brain and consequently points to more effective ways of improving visual perception.

How does it all work? The eyes let in the light – the brain makes sense of it - so we can ‘see’ and understand the 3D world, travel through it, live our lives safely. Sometimes, though, the light does not all get in because there is something wrong with the eye; sometimes it is the brain that is unable to make sense of information efficiently; sometimes both eye and brain are not in full working order.

All babies have to learn how to see but amazingly most of the visual skills we need are in place before the age of about 18 months. These are then refined and improved by moving about and doing things. But if a baby cannot ‘see’ because the light source is unclear or incomplete (due to eyes) or the processing of information about the world is interrupted (due to brain) that progressive, normal visual development will not take place.

This is where the Early Vision Trainer has been designed to help.

It is not an objective assessment or a long term programme but it does need some initial commitment to follow agreed guidelines for a few weeks; where improvement is going to occur it is usually observed early. It is not a difficult thing to do. Just as you would pick up your baby normally during the day for a ‘cooing’ session, you have something specific to do together. You also learn a great deal about what your baby responds to, what your baby likes and how to play together effectively.

Remember, the objective using the Early Vision Trainer is to bring about visual curiosity, at the child’s level of ability, in order to improve basic figure/ground visual perception at a vital time of vision development in the life of a child.