In this article we give you insight into what your 6 month – 9 month old actually sees, baby activities that begin to foster other visual skills such as visual memory or visual coordination, and recommended toys and other items that entice your baby to explore.

What does your baby see?  Baby’s Vision from 6-9 Months:

A lot of changes happened the past few months.  During these next 3 months, your baby’s vision will continue to refine.  Have you wondered how far can a baby see?  Baby’s distance vision will continue to improve, and around 6 months, he will be able to focus on things 15 feet away.  Over the period of 3 months, distance vision will nearly mature completely.

A large milestone your baby will reach is called object permanence.  This is where you baby’s memory has reached the stage where he is able to recall things from his memory.  For instance, even though you hid a toy, he knows that it is still there.  Or, if he falls asleep in your arms being rocked, but wakes up still in a crib, he will now realize the difference and not be happy with it.

Activities to engage a baby’s visual development:

Vision is very impressionable in the early years of your child’s life and the visual experiences they have as a baby, toddler, and young child matter in helping mold their visual development and abilities.  Here we give baby activities that will contribute to shaping their visual abilities.  Remember, visual development encompasses not only sight but, observation, visual-spatial skills, visual-motor skills, visual recall, and so on.

Partially hide a toy, and watch as he goes to grab it.  As he gets older or closer to 8 months of age object permanence may have fully set in.  In this case, change the baby game up, and fully hide the toy.

Be sure to talk to your baby during any of the fun activities you and baby are playing.  Point at objects and describe what you see to help build his observation skills.  This is very effective when you are reading books or speaking about something he is already focusing on, but also try to grab his attention on things farther away.  Point to things in motion and describe what it is doing.

Give him different visual experiences.  Take him outside, to a museum, or simply move rooms and positions where he normally is.  He should be a pro at tummy time by now, so be sure to let him play frequently in this position.

He may not be fully coordinated to play the baby game of roll the ball, but he can still try.  Place a ball in front of him and watch as he moves it back and forth.  This stimulates his visual-spatial perception.  You can use different sized balls in this baby activity.

You can also vary the toys that he frequently plays with.  Incorporate different geometric shapes during sensory activities for baby.

Be sure to check out more sensory activities for infants on the Activity Page as you will find more and specific baby activities.

Recommended Baby Toys:

Below are recommended toys that provide varying shapes, angles, and textures for your baby to see.  Also included are items that will stimulate their spatial perception.