To test a child's peripheral vision, we have the child look towards a center light. A second flashing light appears in different locations and we watch to see if the child looks at it. The light farthest away from center that a child will look at provides a measure of that child's peripheral vision. We hope to determine what is normal peripheral vision for infants and toddlers. When an adult goes to the eye doctor, visual acuity is tested with letters of different sizes.
Young children tend to look towards wide stripes.
When the stripes are thinner, children no longer look towards them, because the stripes appear to blend in with the gray background. The narrowest stripes that a child will look at provide a measure of that child's visual acuity. When we finish the tests, we tell parents whether their child's results are normal for his or her age. This research was supported by the National Eye Institute, part of the Federal government's National Institutes of Health.