Your Brilliant Baby in Week 16: Eye Tracking Begins

What your infant learns this week

By Jan Faull, MEd

Your Brilliant Baby in Week 16: Eye Tracking Begins

In this article:
Baby's Brain in Week 16
What the Research Shows
Week 16 Brain Booster
Your Week 16 Toolbox

While your baby has been able to see since birth, her eyesight is becoming stronger and more refined right now. Learn more about Baby's visual milestones in her sixteenth week.

Baby's Brain in Week 16

You may have noticed that your baby watches her own hands. This skill takes hold somewhere between 12 and 16 weeks. Although you know that your baby's been able to see since birth, it's taken all these weeks for her to actually take notice of her own hands.

From birth to six weeks of age, your baby stared at her surroundings. She would hold a gaze on a bright light or bright object and move her eyes and head together.

Now between eight and 24 weeks, your baby's eyes are moving widely from left to right as she looks around the room, moving her head less and eyes more. If you dangle a toy from a string and move it slowly back and forth, Baby can follow it (see here!) with just her eyes. Not only that, she can also follow you as you move about—which may make sneaking in to check on her during naptime a little riskier these days.

What the Research Shows

Following an object is called tracking. Because a newborn can't yet move independently, a lot of her experiences are with objects that move toward her or away from her. To successfully recognize objects, she has to be able to keep her eyes on them as they move.

Studies show that tracking is initially fairly inefficient. Infants younger than two months show some tracking for brief periods if the target is moving very slowly, but a shift occurs somewhere around six to 10 weeks as babies' tracking becomes skillful rather quickly.

As babies track objects, they're learning that the shape, size, and color of the item remains constant even when the light, distance, and angle of the view have changed.

Week 16 Brain Booster

Since you're eager to interact with your baby, roll a ball in her range of vision and watch her track it. Pull or push a toy at a reasonably slow speed, and again notice how your child will follow its movements.