Children's Hearing and Vision Milestones

Children's Hearing and Vision Milestones Two special parts of the physical examination at all ages should go mentioned because they’re very important to what we do. One is the major developments of hearing. What we’re looking for here is birth. Most babies responds to a loud noise with a startle reflex or marrow exam. By either 12 weeks, they turn their head to the side the sound comes at. But from 12 to 16-weeks, they actually look towards where the sound is coming from. They locate the sound by 6-months that’s 16to 24 weeks. By 24-weeks the more they respond to sound no matter where it’s from and will hunt around the room looking for it. These were important measurements of sound and ability at physical examinations to pick up hearing loss in an early age. It has been somewhat surpassed now by the fact that all newborns in a Hospitals are screened for sound and for hearing. In screening, it is done mechanically and can be done even by what’s called a Brainstem Evoke Response. And those who do not respond to the normal neonatal screening, this is an EEG or Brain Wave Cast to actually why the child is receiving the stimulation of sound. The other area as you might believe that’s very important is the development of vision. Vision in a baby actually is somewhere between 2000 to 2400. They have corneal reflexes, they have papillary reflex at birth but you’ll notice that they only follow about 90 degrees in the first 4-weeks of life you can not go pass the 90 degree mark or they will lose tracking completely during that time. By somewhere around 12 weeks, the patient’s peripheral vision starts to develop better. By 12 to 20 weeks, the child starts to recognize feeding bottles. By 28 weeks which is somewhere around the 6th to 7th month term, the child is now able to rescue a dropped objects as it starts to show a color preference which is actually for Yellow and Red and is able to discriminate simple geometric forms that would be around 7 months. Next is by 28 to 44 weeks, they begin to fixate on objects. Depth Perception begins to be something they require. And by 52 weeks, their vision is actually 20/40 to 20/60 and they now can follow rapidly movement. After that they develop hand-eye coordination as we know it. The Doctor should be well aware of these visual milestones and should be watching them develop. Also, he has to develop an exam as the child develops later for Amblyopia. And the first way that’s done is simply by a covered test looking for an eye movement so this is another important aspect of doing a physical examination on your child and you should be very aware that hearing and vision at all time should also be examined not just the heart, lungs, abdomen. This is extremely important.