Photoeyeplay - email with explanation from Right Brain Kids

Early Learning Early Learning General Discussions
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I had so many questions about PhotoEyePlay, and when Martina suggested to ask Right Brain Kids directly I went ahead with it.

Got very interesting detailed reply, that answers some of the questions. Thought to share it for everyone’s benefit. I have not had a chance to look at the links just yet, will do that tomorrow, but it is neat that they gave links to research supporting the PhotoEyePlay method of presentation…

" [i]You brought up some very good questions,
and I’d like to answer them one at a time:

1) “How does it exactly work?”

There are two different kinds of photo-neuroreceptors in the eye: rods
(black/white) and cones (3 primary colors). The rods are responsible for
depth perception, shading, contrast and definition. The cones are
responsible for perceiving color. The rods and cones work together to
send their visual impulses to the brain to create an instant picture of
the child’s surroundings. The stronger the impression, the stronger the
mental picture, and the stronger the child’s overall memory and cognition
tends to become.

There are 4 sets of cards: black/white, red/green, violet/yellow, blue/orange

  • the black/white sets stimulate and strengthen the rods
  • the three complementary colors (red/green, violet/yellow, blue/orange)
    sets stimulate and strengthen the cones
    We systematically present each set, and are able to stimulate each type
    within the four lessons in each DVD.
  1. “What research has been done to confirm it?”

The importance of infant visual stimulation (exposure to light, color, and
movement) was established in neuroscience circles during the 1970s and
80s.

Here are some research links:

The Institutes For the Achievement of Human Potential: Stages of Sensory
Development
Note: This is an archived page.
http://web.archive.org/web/20050305063610/http://www.iahp.org/developmental_profile/sensory.html

McMaster University
Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour
Vision Development in Infants: Visual field, eye movements, pattern
perception
http://www.psychology.mcmaster.ca/3gg3/8-vision.html

The British Psychological Society
“Salience of primary and secondary colours in infancy” : substantiating
color relevancy
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpsoc/bjdp/2008/00000026/00000004/art00002?crawler=true

The National Academy of Science of the United States of America
Newborns’ preference for face-relevant stimuli: Effects of contrast polarity
http://www.pnas.org/content/102/47/17245.abstract

We also have a document called “Infant Eye Development” – it’s so
fascinating for new parents to learn about what their child visually sees
and perceives at each stage! It’s an attachment I’ll include. (Let me know if anyone is interested in that, I glanced over it, it looks very interesting, but I will read it tomorrow)

  1. "I also am curious if there specific rules so to speak on which colors
    and combinations of colors/shapes and combinations of shapes to use when
    using photoeyeplay. I’ve seen certain combinations on your videos, what
    did you based your decision on using this particular ones? Another
    question is whether you would use the same shapes/colors for the whole
    duration of the poem/song, or if it is a longer piece, would you change
    the set to a new one? When you do that with a song for instance, would you
    take into consideration a beat, or when you read the poem do you taej
    poetry rhytm into consideration?"

We based our color presentation on exposure to rich primary and secondary
colors. The shapes and style of presentation was designed upon specific
feedback from the children in our classrooms over the years. There is a
lot behind it, but we’re a little careful of what we release.[/i]"

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im very interested in the attachment. I would definetly like to know more about photo eye play.

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Thank you for sharing Skylark! It is good to know the reasons behind some of the methods. I would like to see the attachment too.

4

Thanks Skylark…I had these very same questions in mind and was little hesitant to use it on my baby. I did see the links, but didn’t quite understand them. Anyway, has anyone found that this particular photoeyeplay has had positive impacts on their child? If so, in what way. Would be glad if someone could throw some light on it.

It would be great if you could share the attachment too. :slight_smile:

Questers.

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Thanks for sharing. I had an idea of how they worked, I just could never explain it like that! I think everyone is interested in reading the attachment. You can attach it right to your post.

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:slight_smile: Ifound that since doing some photo eye play with nursrey rhymes the child comes to look .he has more eye contact :happy: . Ithink it would help if i do it between lessons .He get interested. can sombody help in doing this in the course?please :confused: :unsure:

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I tried attaching the word file but had problem time after time after time ( tried about 5 times), so I hope it is OK I just paste parts of the document here for everyone.

Infant Eye Development – Part 1 - Introduction

(I summarised it in parts, to make it easier, hope it helps :slight_smile: )

The early neural pathways in your baby’s brain are numerous but unsteady.
There are certain critical periods from prenatal life through the early years of childhood when the newly formed neural connections require particular types of stimulation in order to stabilize. For example, if a child is born with a cataract in one eye and it is removed two years after birth, she will still be permanently blind in that one eye. Or, if a child were raised in the dark during the first six months of life, she would never be able to see normally afterwards even if her visual pathways were otherwise faultless. This occurs because the visual neurons of the brain require the stimulation of light, or they will quickly die off from lack of use.

Visual nerve development occurs in two phases. The first phase is controlled by the genes which establish a primitive wiring blueprint. The second phase is controlled by the unique visual experiences that your child encounters. These optical adventures actually direct the further wiring of the neural pathways. Although heredity plays a role in the quality of your child’s vision, early experience is vitally important in moulding her future visual abilities.

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Prenatal phase – Infant Eye development part 2 -

Prenatal: can my baby see in the first trimester?

Your baby cannot see quite yet. It takes some time for your baby to develop her visual system because it is a highly complex network. By the fourth week of her life, your baby is only 1/4 inch long, but her first optic tissues are forming. Just one week later, the earliest version of the eyes has formed and the retina and the lens are distinct. These primitive eyes are attached to the brain by a short stalk that takes up a large portion of the space in your baby’s head. By week eight, your baby’s eye spots are starting to face forward and look distinctly like human
eyes. The upper and lower eyelids form and then fuse shut until her sixth
month of gestation.

Can my baby see in the second trimester?

This time marks a period of immense growth in the visual cortex and toward
the end of this period there is a possibility that your baby can see, though very dimly. Within 14-28 weeks of gestation all of the 100 million neurons in the primary visual cortex are formed. By five months, the synapses, (or the gaps between each of the neurons where electrical impulses jump from one neuron to another), begin to form and continue for a year at the astounding rate of ten billion new synapses per day!! By 25 weeks your baby might move or turn her head in response to a bright light directed to your abdomen. This means the optic nerve is beginning to function. By 27 weeks her eyelids separate and she begins to move her eyes.

Can my baby see in the third trimester?

By her 32nd week of growth your baby blinks often, her pupils dilate and she is capable of simple eye movements. If you were to give birth at this time, your baby would be capable of following a moving object with her eyes. She even has new eyebrows and eyelashes. Her iris is formed but can your baby actually see? She may be able to see what is going on in the uterus and can almost certainly distinguish light from dark, but the womb is a pretty un-illuminated place. Premature babies born at this time have limited visual abilities so your baby might too.

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Infant eye development – Part 3 - Birth to 3 months

What can my baby see from birth to three months?

Everything that passes before your baby’s eyes for several months after birth will have a lasting impact on her visual abilities for the rest of her life. Her eyes received little stimulation in the dark recesses of your womb. At birth, her visual structures are in place, now she merely needs to learn how to use them. Her fuzzy starting point may allow her just the right amount of visual experience without overloading her brand new equipment. In fact, her restricted vision may make it easier for her to begin the immensely complex task of coordinating vision with touch, since the only things she can see clearly are within her reach.

Your baby’s vision is pretty foggy at birth. If you had to navigate your world through a steamed window, it might be much the same. She can see from the tip of her nose to about nine inches away from her. When she is nursing or being held, your face is the perfect distance for her developing eyes. Her vision is in fact perfectly suited for learning what her new family members look like. Amazingly, your baby can recognize your face within minutes after birth. She could even distinguish your face from a gallery of photos. For the next two to three months she will like to look at faces or drawings of faces more than anything else. Newborns have been found to be able to identify the gender of other babies, provided they are moving. Even more remarkably, they can do this when the babies are cross-dressed!

Your newborn doesn’t see out of the center of her eyes as adults do…instead, she sees from the periphery. Because of this, you might consider hanging mobiles beside her and about nine inches away from her, rather than directly above her. She can see some color, reds and greens particularly, but she prefers the sharp contrasts of black and white designs. Faces give her the perfect visual stimuli. When she looks at a face, the hairline and chin provide a bold, contrasting frame for her peripheral vision. In experiments, babies less than an hour old will turn
their head and eyes farther to follow a correct drawing of a human face than they will to follow a face whose features have been rearranged.

Your baby’s eyes are surprisingly good at perceiving slow movement, even though they will move in jerky steps. Her eyes will tend to fall behind the object they are trying to track. Your newborn is motivated to stare at everything she can see, especially if she has never seen it before. She even has the good sense to grow bored with things she has been looking at for a long time. A word of caution: extremes of sound, movement and light are stressful for your baby in her first tender weeks. It is possible that a bombardment of visual stimulation could prove stressful for her as well.

From six to eight weeks your baby will look an equal amount of time at familiar things and new ones. By two months she will much prefer to examine objects that she has not seen before. At two months your baby can see more from the center of her eyes, so you can hang a mobile above her about 8 - 15 inches from the bridge of her nose. She can see the difference between many different faces now, and can watch more of their internal features, like the nose and mouth. Her eyes can track much more smoothly now. If you talk to her and move your head at the same time, you will get a smile more easily than if you stay stationary and silent. Before she gives you a smile, she will first make an observation of your
whole face, going from hairline to chin and then returning her gaze to your eyes. She probably will not recognize you if you present your face in profile or if you are wearing a hat.

By two months, your baby will gaze at you for long periods of time. Her gaze may even get stuck because of visual wiring changes going on in the brain, and you may have to rescue her from time to time. When this happens you can just change her position or give her something new to look at. She can distinguish between pairs of colors now, if the objects she is viewing are very bright and very large. Purples and yellow-green hues are still hard for her to see. Your baby loves to look at large bold pictures. Your friends might think it’s too soon, but you can try sitting with your tiny baby in your lap and showing her a big picture book.

The period from two to three months is a critical time for manual-visual learning. Your baby’s body begins to uncurl from the fetal position and her hands begin to reach out and explore her world. She discovers her hands and will stare at them with fascination for hours. Now she can hold and manipulate objects and is ready for a lot more play and stimulation.

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Infant eye development – Part 4 – Three to nine months.

What can my baby see from three to six months?

Between two and eight months of age the number of neurons in your baby’s visual cortex are multiplying into the trillions. New visual skills quickly improve until your baby’s vision is very nearly as good as an adult by her first birthday. By three months your baby begins to see the purple and yellow/green hues as well as the red and green ones. Your baby will probably prefer these primary colors in their purest and brightest versions. Given a choice, she might choose bright red and blue over yellow-green and purple. By four months she can remember and categorize all the primary colors. She has an easier time remembering color than shapes at this time.

Depth perception depends on two eyes working together. By three and a half
months your baby will be seeing in 3-D because her eyes will have developed this ability to work together. Between three and six months your baby is able to anticipate the position of a steadily moving object. Prior to this time she was merely able to follow the direction of the object. This is a major visual landmark because it marks the period when your baby actually begins to choose where to look.

What are my baby’s visual abilities from six to nine months?

By six months all your baby’s visual abilities have emerged (depth perception, color vision, well controlled eye movements and fine acuity). Her hand-eye coordination is maturing quickly. She is now able to reach out and grasp most everything that she wants. It is important to remember that during this period your baby will still want to explore everything she sees with her mouth. Her mouth is an organ of exploration which she uses to verify most everything that she can see, grasp or touch. It is critical to keep her play areas clean and put few limitations (within reason) on her oral explorations.

At six months your baby can almost crawl and can probably sit but not balance alone. These new positions mean that your baby will want new and more varied visual stimuli. She will crave constant but slight variety in the objects that you give her to touch, grasp and manipulate. If she seems to grow bored with the objects and pictures that you give her in a particular room, try putting these same things in a different place, and she may find renewed interest in them.

By nine months, your baby can sit and play on the floor using both hands to manipulate her toys. At the same time that she sits independently, she learns to crawl across the room for other visual feasts. This expanded locomotion means that she will be craving additional things to look at and more objects to exercise her developing hand-eye coordination. By eight months old, your baby begins to learn by watching you demonstrate things. For instance if you take out crayons and draw in front of her, she may not be able to draw anything but she will show definite signs of attempting to mimic you.

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Infant eye development – Part 5 – Nine to Twelve months

What are my baby’s visual abilities from nine to 12 months?

By nine months, all your baby’s visual abilities have emerged (depth perception, color vision, well controlled eye movements and fine acuity). By one year old your baby’s visual apparatus are almost fully tuned and she sees a world of rich colors, textures and depth. New visual skills quickly improve until by one year old, your baby’s vision is very nearly as good as an adult’s.

By ten months, your baby’s hand-eye coordination is remarkably mature.
She can sit on the floor and play, lean forward to grab a toy and even scurry across the room to grab a handful of dog fur. She will crave constant but slight variety in the objects that you give her to touch, grasp and manipulate.

Your baby will continue to enjoy looking at picture books during this time. She will be pleased to look at almost anything, no matter what the complexity. But when reading to her, it is preferable to use simple, bold, brightly colored images. The more that you can read to her, the faster she will be able to associate images, letters and number symbols with spoken words. You can try using large flash cards with your baby now. You might paint animals, objects, letters and numbers on these cards. Then as you hold them, say their names as your baby looks at them. With more formal lessons such as this, it is important to allow your baby to tell you if she is ready for these games. She will show no interest, or will get cranky if you try to play too long. If she enjoys flash card activities,
you can intersperse formal learning times with more physical play or a walk in the park.

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Infant eye development – Part 6 - one to two years old

What are my baby’s visual abilities from one to two years old?

By a year old, your child sees almost as well as an adult. All her visual abilities have emerged (depth perception, color vision, well-controlled eye movements and fine acuity). At eighteen months old, your toddler’s sensory and motor maturation is complete for the most part. Now she concentrates on the higher mental skills.

Within the first few months of this time, your baby will begin to walk.
Her new upright posture will afford her a fresh vantage point from which
to view and interact with the world. She has become an expert at grasping,
pinching, pulling and throwing objects. Because of her trailblazing mobility, her need for new visual stimuli remains very high throughout this year. When she first learns to walk she will enjoy a number of fascinating objects that are small enough for her to carry around. By eighteen months, when she may be able to look over her shoulder while walking, she will probably enjoy a toy that she can watch while she pulls it along behind her.

Your baby will continue to enjoy looking at picture books during this time. She will be pleased to look at almost anything, no matter what the complexity. If she enjoys flash card activities, you can intersperse formal learning times with more physical play or a walk.

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And here are some References ( these parts had links, so instead of pasting the article, I just give the reference, I think it works better for everyone :smiley: )

Eliot, Lise What’s Going On in There? (New York: Bantam Books, 1999)

http://www.babycenter.com/pregnancy/

Leach, Penelope Babyhood: Stage by Stage, from birth to age two: How Your
baby Develops Physically, Emotionally, Mentally (New York:Alfred A. Knopf,
1998

Time Magazine Special Report February 3, 1997 Vol. 149 No. 5 Nash,J.
Madeleine Fertile Minds

Sunday,February 16, 1997
http://www.news-observer.com/2little2late/stories/day1skygraphics.html
Critical Windows of Opportunity

Hope this is a help, and hope it was OK to share it like that :slight_smile:

Will be interesting to know what everyone thinks. I still got to look into all the information, but it does seem very interesting. I am glad that Right Brain Kids team was so kind to aswer all these questions! :slight_smile:

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Thanks for posting that. It’s a good read!

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Thanks Skylark for the effort. I will go through it soon…but just a quick question…When are we supposed to show this? One after each session? When does the tweedlewink show this? How many can we show in a day?

Thanks,
Questers.