At birth, every tissue and function of a baby's eyes is still developing. Therefore, most newborns have normal or mild hyperopia (farsightedness), and their vision is poor, only able to discern the outlines of objects within 2-3 meters.
At two months, an infant's eyes can follow moving objects;
At four months, visual acuity ranges from 0.02 to 0.05;
Infants aged 5-6 months have vision ranging from 0.04 to 0.08;
Infants aged 7-8 months can fixate their gaze and maintain focus in one direction for extended periods;
One-year-old children can recognize organs such as eyes, ears, and nose;
Children aged 2-3 years achieve vision of 0.5 to 0.6;
Children aged 3-4 years reach vision of 0.7 to 0.8;
Children aged 5–6 years typically have near-normal vision of 1.0;
where 1.0 represents standard normal vision.
By around age 20, the eyeball develops fully, with vision reaching approximately 1.0–1.5.
Characteristics of childhood visual development:
Newborn eyes appear nearly perfectly spherical. The lens and ciliary muscle have limited accommodative power, causing parallel light rays to focus behind the retina—typically manifesting as hyperopia (farsightedness). After age 6, visual development matures, gradually progressing from hyperopia toward emmetropia (normal vision).
This process is termed the eye's emmetropization. When uncorrected distance visual acuity reaches 1.0 in one eye, that eye is considered emmetropic. With age, the contracting power of the lens and ciliary muscle diminishes, reducing accommodation ability and causing blurred near vision—a phenomenon known as presbyopia or age-related farsightedness.