Babies begin to visualize the world around them using their eyes at three to four months old. Their eyes adjust and begin to develop stereopsis or depth perception. Being able to perceive the world in 3D plays a crucial role in improving motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and the ability to begin moving and crawling. Many babies can begin to crawl as early as seven months old. Having good vision when babies begin to crawl will help them travel through the environment around them as they continue to grow.
What happens when a baby is cross-eyed? How will their crawling and movement be affected?
The Vision Development Center Of Lancaster wants to help parents understand how their baby may be affected by strabismus, more commonly known as being cross-eyed.
A task like crawling seems like a very physical task. Your baby moves one leg in front of the other and moves forward. But the part of crawling that we may take for granted is navigating around the baby’s surroundings. Spatial awareness is heavily dependent on your vision. Perceiving objects, obstacles, height and distance come almost exclusively from vision. Babies begin to use their vision in combination with movement as they develop spatial awareness around nine months old. As you move forward, your eyes perceive things to your left and right as moving backward. Babies become more aware of this concept, also known as peripheral laminar optic flow, the more they begin to crawl. They will use their peripheral vision to help position themselves and gain balance as they move. All of these factors also help babies perceive height and how they are affected in the area by it.
But what happens when a baby is cross-eyed? How does this affect things? Being cross-eyed is one of the most common vision conditions found in children, particularly infants. This happens when a baby’s eyes are misaligned. One eye would be turned in a different direction from the other. This happens because the eye muscles do not work together as they normally should. As babies continue to grow, their eye muscles strengthen as they use them more and the problem corrects itself. In some cases, however, babies can continue to have crossed eyes, which can start to affect their crawling and movement. They may not be able to perceive objects around them correctly or develop an awareness of things like height and distance. If they continue to have issues with their vision, crawling can become dangerous as they may not develop the awareness to navigate dangerous areas properly.
Thankfully, when strabismus is caught early on it is very treatable. Treatments may vary depending on the severity of each case. Doctors may suggest that crossed-eyes can be fixed with certain eye drops, eye coverings or patches, and even glasses. Vision therapy can even be used to help strengthen the affected eye as a treatment for some cases. More severe cases may require surgery. If left untreated, strabismus can lead to other issues.
Later in life, strabismus and other vision problems may lead to things like ADD or ADHD. The Vision Development Center Of Lancaster may be able to help with ADHD treatment should things come to that. If you have seen other doctors for your child’s vision problems, ADD, or ADHD, it may be time to come to The Vision Development Center Of Lancaster. We can help evaluate a wide range of vision problems from mild issues to serious problems.
Dr. Seiderman’s vision therapy treatment can help improve or eliminate things like crossed eyes, perception problems, ADD, and ADHD.
Contact us today to see how we can help your child today!