The child is constantly studying the world. At first, he listens with interest to all the sounds around him. And later he begins to study his body: fingers, arms, legs, face. The baby, being in his mother’s belly, may already experience feelings, feeling sad with his mother, or smiling when he sleeps.
Once, during a consultation about lactostasis in a nursing mother, I happened to see black and white pictures for newborns, according to which the mother was engaged in the development of the baby. The situation was a little paradoxical: my mother’s temperature was below 40, and she told me that I shouldn’t miss classes with my one-month-old baby, because it helps him develop faster.
I became interested in what kind of technique this is and I’ll tell you about it today.
How are black and white pictures useful?
Studying black and white pictures helps to form:
- color perception;
- line of sight;
- visual acuity;
- contrast sensitivity.
The period from birth to six months is the active stage for the formation of the newborn’s vision system. Therefore, visual stimulation has a beneficial effect on the overall development of the newborn.
Which pictures should I choose?
In fact, the conditions of this technique allow you to use your imagination; the only condition when creating your own types of black and white blanks is to take into account the rules of use. It’s not at all difficult to find black and white pictures to print, or to redraw them. When choosing pictures, you can focus on the age of the newborn:
- The first month of life (learn about how the baby develops during this period from the article: What should a child be able to do at 1 month?>>>):
- not complicated geometric figures;
- dots, cells;
- straight, wavy and broken lines.
- Up to 3 months inclusive (read about what a child at 3 months can do in the article: What should a child at 3 months be able to do?>>>):
- outlines of animals;
- figures of different sizes and shapes.
- The period is from 3 to 4 months (what changes at this age can be found in the article: What should a child be able to do at 4 months?>>>):
- complicated forms;
- drawn emotions;
- From 4 months to 6 (a child at six months is already changing a lot, unlike a newborn. Read more about development in the article What should a child be able to do at 6 months? >>>):
- simple ornaments;
- carpet patterns;
- Khokhloma painting.
Use limit only black and white version 4 months, after 4 months you can add other colors.
Important! You should not focus on developing only visual perception. To fully improve your baby, you need to pay attention to the development of all senses.
Where to hang pictures and how to deal with them correctly?
Not everyone succeeds in developing a child from the first days of life. To me, as a consultant breastfeeding and caring for a newborn, it seems that in the first months of life it is worth focusing on getting used to the new role. After all, you have so many changes in your life due to the birth of a child.
You need to be a little ahead, knowing the needs of the child and be ready for the new stage of his development. In general, by actively including a child in your life, you create an immense field for his development.
Interesting! The zone of proximal development is an area of additional development by a child of new knowledge with the help of an adult, which is not able to unfold during individual activity without the participation of an adult.
Imagine that you have a child in your arms, and you and him are doing some things around the house: bending, squatting, telling stories, confidently holding the child in your arms, and at every moment the child is included in this life: somewhere he will group his legs, where something will strain your back more strongly, somewhere it will blossom from your story and kind words to him.
On the other hand, with an adequate approach, when pictures and black and white patterns are simply present in a child’s life, but without distortions, you can use them too.
If you do not systematically practice with pictures, the result will not be visible. It remains to include active activities with black and white visual aid into your daily schedule and choose the right places to attach these pictures.
Here are some ideas for where to hang black and white pictures:
- Baby crib:
- mobile;
- walls of the crib.
- Game option:
- Homemade cubes with selected pictures;
- Do-it-yourself book or printable cards;
- Floor mat with a black and white pattern.
- Active movement zone:
- Doors;
- Window;
- Walls;
- Fridge;
- Mirror.
These are just a few ideas I've suggested, but don't forget - there are no clear boundaries or rules, so use your imagination and help your newborn develop in a fun way.
If you have a desire to help your baby in his development, you need to take into account several rules on how best to use educational black and white pictures for newborns:
- Start simple: introduce your newborn to the simplest black and white elements (lines, circles);
- A lot and often is bad. Do not bring pictures before the baby’s eyes too often; the newborn’s eyes will quickly get tired and he will begin to get nervous. Do not hang too many pictures around the apartment, as they will stop attracting his attention and become an element of the interior;
- Take advantage of your baby's active time. Develop your baby's attention during active wakefulness: when he lies on his tummy, or looks at the moving elements of the mobile, or walks past pictures with him in your arms;
- Don't forget to change pictures. The recommended period for active perception of the picture is 3 days. Try to change them within a given period, and if you notice the child’s interest in certain patterns, do not rush to change the picture, let the baby study it for his own pleasure;
- Let's complicate the task. When the newborn gets used to constant visual stress, you can add a new exercise - the baby fixes his gaze on a black and white picture, and the mother slowly moves the picture left and right, as well as up and down.
Development should be like a game. No overexertion, monitor the behavior of the newborn and do not let him get tired of the pictures. Otherwise, your baby will begin to react negatively to the appearance of black and white patterns.
Color in nature is always found next to or surrounded by other colors. As a result, colors mutually influence each other, changing in hue, lightness and saturation. This phenomenon is called contrast. Required condition emergence contrast– arrangement of contrasting colors directly next to each other. Contrasts are divided into two types: achromatic (light) and chromatic (color). In each of the named contrasts in turn, contrasts are distinguished: simultaneous, borderline and sequential.
How closer friend objects of different colors are located next to each other, the clearer and more definite their mutual influence is. So, any color surrounded by lighter ones becomes darker, and when surrounded by darker ones, it brightens. This phenomenon is called simultaneous light contrast or contrast by lightness. If, for example, you select mixtures of colors on a dark-tone palette, then they may appear quite light when surrounded by a dark background tone. If the resulting mixtures of paints are transferred to White background paper, they will “darken” compared to how they looked on the palette. The more the color of an object differs from the colors of surrounding objects in lightness, the more its tone changes towards lightening or darkening.
Light (achromatic) contrast
This phenomenon is equally characteristic of chromatic and achromatic colors. The phenomenon of light contrast It is also observed when both fields have the same color tone, but differ in lightness. In this case, not only lightness changes, but also saturation. In essence, with simultaneous light contrast We also deal with a combination of chromatic and achromatic colors.
Light (monochrome) contrast
The effect of contrast is influenced by the size of the areas of the background and the color spot lying on it. Contrast will be more noticeable if the surrounding background is larger in area than the color spot located on it. The contrast effect of the background will increase as its saturation increases. For effect contrast The shape of the color spot also affects. A circle or a ring, a square or a letter on the same background under equal conditions will be accompanied by different strengths contrast. The phenomenon of simultaneous light contrast is accompanied not only by darkening or lightening of the color spot, but also by an apparent change in size. A light spot on a dark background appears larger than it actually is, and, conversely, dark spot seems to shrink in size.
Contrast efficiency depending on the size and shape of the reacting field
Effect simultaneous color contrast occurs when two chromatic colors interact or when an achromatic and chromatic color are compared. This is a more complex phenomenon than light contrast, since changes in color tone are accompanied by simultaneous changes in lightness and saturation, and the latter may be more noticeable than the color itself contrast. Bright strontium yellow against the background of dark ultramarine causes the phenomenon of light to a greater extent. contrast, than color, and a bright red tone on a brown background seems to us most of all in saturation. If you need to define an action contrast in terms of color tone, it is necessary that the contrasting tones be approximately equal in lightness and saturation. Then it will not be difficult to notice that the juxtaposition of different colors evokes in them various complementary shades and qualities. If we talk only about changes in color tone, then we should point out the trend of colors in contrast move further away from each other in their position on the color wheel. For example, yellow on an orange background will be paler, slightly greenish, orange on a yellow background will be more orange and have a slight reddish tint.
Contrast in color tone
Represents a somewhat special kind contrast complementary colors. If a color is in the vicinity or against the background of its complementary color or close to it, then it is perceived as more saturated. If you put a small spot of the same color, but of lower saturation, on the color plane, the latter will lose saturation even more. The more saturated the color of the surrounding background, the greater the impact it has on the color located in its surroundings. This is especially noticeable in cases where both colors have approximately the same lightness.
Contrast of complementary colors
To watch contrast according to saturation, you need to take two color spots, identical in lightness and color tone and different in saturation. To this contrast artists always resort to it when they need to increase the purity of a particular color. Less rich colors, both light and dark, give greater effect contrast than saturated. The contrast in saturation is also especially noticeable when comparing achromatic colors with chromatic ones. At the same time, on a black or dark gray background the color decreases its saturation, and on a white or light gray background it increases.
Contrast of achromatic (black, white) with achromatic tones
Border (or edge) contrast occurs at the boundary of two adjacent painted surfaces. Most clearly borderline contrast appears when two stripes of different lightness are located nearby (borderline light contrast) or by color (borderline color contrast). In the first case, the part of the light area that is closer to the dark one will be lighter than the farther one. The impression of unevenness, uneven coloring of both fields is created, a kind of spatial vibration is obtained and a three-dimensional effect arises. If this impression is undesirable for the artist and does not correspond to the task set by him, then it is necessary to trim the lightness by applying light halftones on the edges of touching surfaces to dampen the effect of the border contrast. The action of the regional contrast will be weakened, and the object will be perceived as more voluminous and spatial.
With chromatic borderline contrast adjacent colors change in the same direction as when simultaneously contrast, that is yellow spot near red it will be a little greener, but the further it is from red, the more this effect will weaken. Almost borderline and simultaneous contrasts always perform together, only in one case one is more noticeable, in another – the other. If the spot on the background is small in size, then the borderline contrast almost absent, if the spot is large enough in relation to the background, then the phenomenon of borderline contrast. Action of the border contrast can be neutralized if a strip of white or black is placed between the colors (drawing).
Borderline contrast
These patterns should be known to every artist and used by him as a means of achieving expressiveness and color unity of the work. Phenomena contrasts oblige the artist to find harmony between neighboring colors, strengthening or weakening the contrasting interaction (for example, by increasing or decreasing the area of mutually contrasting surfaces, placing cold-colored objects next to warmly colored objects; removing objects from each other or, conversely, placing them nearby, lighting them, etc.)
If you look at the sun and then move your eye to a white wall, you will see a dark spot for a while, representing a blurry image of the sun on the retina. If you close your eyes after looking at a bright light for a long time, you can clearly see the image of a luminous body, the intensity of which will gradually weaken. This phenomenon is called consistent contrast. The consistent contrast also lies in the fact that when we move our gaze from one colorful spot to another, we observe on the latter a shade of color that is unusual for it. For example, when we look from a bright red surface to a gray paper, we may notice a greenish tint in the gray. Thus, each object color, after looking at it for a long time, leaves a trace of an additional color in the eye. The image of a complementary color appears after the object ceases to directly affect our eye. Consistent contrast is also expressed in the fact that the shape of the previous color spot is also reproduced. Low saturated colors do not create consistency contrast.
Consistent contrast is the result of color fatigue on the eyes from exposure to color and light. This phenomenon is called adaptation . In general, the phenomenon of adaptation is associated with the adaptation of the visual apparatus to different conditions lighting. For example, in low light conditions, the apparent lightness of all objects except black ones seems to increase. Moreover, the lighter the color of objects, the more its apparent lightness increases. In strong lighting conditions, objects, especially those with dark colors, are perceived as even darker. Thus, as a result of the adaptation of the eye to light or darkness, the sensitivity of the eyes either decreases or increases. The sensitivity of the eye decreases when perceiving not only achromatic colors, but also chromatic ones. If, for example, you cover part of a blue drapery with black cardboard and look at the drapery for a while, and then remove the black cardboard, then in the place where the drapery was covered with cardboard, it will seem richer in color than the part that was not covered. Consequently, if a color stimulus acts on our eye for a certain time, then the sensitivity of the eye to this color begins to decrease. There is a feeling that the colors have faded and become closer together. Color fatigue is stronger the brighter and more saturated the color affecting vision. Action sequential contrast has meaning when an artist observes nature and when a viewer observes a painting.
When Seraphim was born into our family, I was very actively interested in the Montessori method. I learned about the low bed and other principles of creation, and I also learned about Montessori mobiles and black and white cards. Then I found a lot of contrasting pictures, printed them out and hung them like a garland near the place where Sima spent time when she was not sleeping. Now many of my friends have newborn children and I remembered that it would be nice to make such material so that mothers could develop the vision of tiny babies :)
Why black and white pictures?
It's simple. You've probably heard that newborns have poorly developed vision. In the first days of life, a child's eyes move chaotically. After 20 days, the baby is able to hold his gaze on an object for a short time. Gradually, the child’s gaze develops and he can see further and more clearly.
Newborns also cannot distinguish colors. Yes Yes! This is due to the fact that the retina of the human eye contains special cells (rods and cones). With the help of rods we see contrasting black and white images, and cones allow us to distinguish colors. So, in the first month and a half of life, babies have more rods, and cones develop a little later.
To help your child learn to concentrate, you need to show him contrasting black and white pictures. The principle of introducing new images: from simple to complex. At first it can be the simplest lines, geometric shapes, then animal silhouettes and ornaments. From 2 months -, then more.
I have developed a set of pictures from simple to complex. The very first pictures are very simple, then there are silhouettes of animals of varying detail. Select first those silhouettes that have a clearer shape, and then enter more complex drawings. The most detailed in my selection are the patterns. Introduce them closer to 3 months.
You should change pictures no more than once a week.
How to use black and white cards?
- Hold the picture in your hands and just show it to your baby for a while, talk to him about something, let him hear your voice. The distance to the picture is no more than 30 cm.
- Attach the picture to the wall of the crib or somewhere in the baby’s field of vision at a distance of no more than 30 cm.
- Hang the card on your mobile so that the design is horizontal.
- Place the picture in a frame and place it next to where your baby is feeding. When he eats, he will be able to carefully examine the drawing.
I will be very glad if this material helps you enjoy new things together with your newborn little man. Let him learn early to distinguish what he sees so that he can soon carefully examine your face!
This is true, but does not fully apply to newborns.
Kids love bright toys because their vision is not yet developed; pastel colors and halftones are not for them.
And newborns see so dimly that a contrasting combination of black and white colors is ideal for them.
Black and white pictures for newborns this is the best remedy to stimulate vision. They really like these pictures, they look at them for a long time and carefully.
These do not have to be any real paintings or complex images. The best are simple motifs, geometric patterns, faces, but large enough, clear and contrasting.
But what to do - where to get such pictures and how to show them? There are several options for this.
1. Clothes, diapers, bedspreads, rugs with black and white patterns
No, no one is calling you to decorate the entire nursery in black and white. But if the baby comes across something with a black and white pattern, he will be very interested. This could be mom's polka dot shirt or checkered bedspread.
2. The actual pictures
This can be either special black and white pictures for newborns, which can be found on the Internet and printed, or your own drawings with a black marker on white paper.
Pictures of faces for newborns are especially interesting. Pictures can be shown or attached in some way in the baby’s field of view - to the crib, for example. The baby will love everything.
3. Black and white crib mobile
Since you are unlikely to find such a thing on sale, you can make a mobile with your own hands. For example, sew black and white toys for newborns onto a felt mobile. You can hang just pictures “facing” the child, or special ones, from the mobile black and white cubes for newborns.
>>>
4. Cards and books for newborns with black and white pictures
For example, “Hey baby! Book for newborns,” which consists of individual cards connected with a ring to form a book.
Other books come with special clothespins for a crib or stroller.
Such cubes can be found on sale, but an easier option is to print out the “pattern” of such a cube (see below), cut it out and glue it together. The cubes can be hung above the crib or attached to a mobile. Your baby will be enchanted!
Anything can be drawn on the cubes, but remember that face pictures are very useful for newborns. Offer him drawn emoticons or animal faces with eyes.
Here are a few options for cubes that you can save to your computer and print
92841
Download black and white pictures for newborns. How to make a mobile from blocks for a child with your own hands and how to properly practice with printouts.
Black and white pictures for newborns perfectly stimulate vision development in the first months of life. Such gurus wrote about them early development, like Cecile Lupan and Sarah Brewer in their book Superbaby. In the first days of life, a child's vision is not as sharp as that of an adult. It distinguishes objects better at close distances, and black and white images are more noticeable than color ones due to the structural features of the retina during this period.
The period from birth to six months is very important for the development of a child’s vision, because it is during this period that the eyeball, the pathways leading from it to the brain, and the areas of the brain responsible for receiving and processing visual information are formed most quickly and intensively.
How a baby's vision develops from Newsweek magazine.
Photo from babyblog user Irina.
Psychophysiologists speak of this period as critical for the formation of the visual system. It is the first 6 months of a child’s life that are the most favorable for external stimulation and development of the visual system. As a result of such exercises, visual functions are significantly improved: light perception, visual acuity, color perception, contrast sensitivity, field of vision.
Classes can be carried out on a changing table, in a crib, on a bed, etc., but it is better that the light source is behind the baby’s head.
It’s worth starting with the simplest lines and keeping an eye on the clear black/white contrast.
In the first months, it is important to teach your child to look at pictures, focus his vision and follow objects.
Where to hang black and white pictures
- in the crib,
- stick on the walls,
- hang on the refrigerator,
- into big cubes
- make cards, collages or a book, show it to the baby one by one,
- a ball or mobile above the crib with drawings,
- developmental mat.
How to use black and white pictures for newborns
Show your baby pictures while you walk around the apartment with him, feed him, or lay him on his tummy. A visually rich space (and constant visual stimulation) has a direct link to baby's restful sleep.
Don't show it to the baby too much pictures immediately and watch the reaction. If he doesn’t focus his eyes on the drawing and shows no interest in it at all, don’t be upset (everything has its time).
Practice tracking: catch your eye on the picture and move it slowly left and right, up and down, then over time we complicate the trajectory: in an arc, diagonally, in a circle.
Use while lying on your tummy and crawling. The baby tries to raise his head higher and higher, and it will be interesting for him to see something there that catches his eye.
Attract and switch attention, calm.
Changeimage is possible once every 3 days. If you like the picture, you can leave it for a longer time.
Distance from the child's eyes to the aged image 10 days – 1.5 months – about 30 cm . The size of the drawings is better than A4 or maybe A5 (a quarter of it).
From 3 months, images can be replaced with colored, complex and “hygienically clean” ones - the baby will begin to drag them into his mouth.
How to do:
- You can draw any pictures by hand.
- Make a mobile with your own hands from cubes. We print the pictures from the pdf file (there is already a ready-made layout for the cubes), cut them out, glue them in the shape of cubes, hang them on a ribbon (then it’s up to your imagination).
I made two toys for the baby from 10 cubes. I printed it on medium-thick photo paper, it turned out glossy and very beautiful) They stick even without glue, but it’s still worth gluing for strength. 
Download black and white pictures for newborns:
