Enabling Environments: Under-threes - Hue and cry

Nothing could be more welcome than the current high level of interest in how babies are cared for in nurseries. There are numerous 'baby room projects' going on across the country, most notably the research project being led by Canterbury Christ Church University, and the training project led by Northamptonshire council. Early Education's new 'Baby Room Special Interest Group' has generated huge interest, too. It feels much better than the way things were a few years ago, when I was advised that a not terribly good nursery practitioner working with three- and four-year-olds 'would probably be okay for the baby room'.

Not long ago, we did not think much of babies' perceptual abilities, or their ability to think. The great nineteenth century psychologist William James argued that 'the baby, assailed by eyes, ears, nose, skin, and entrails at once, feels it all as one great blooming, buzzing confusion.' Now it is more common to focus on the sophistication of babies' senses and brains. Psychologist Alison Gopnik recently described babies as 'the best learning machines in the universe'.

Although this change in how we understand babies is both important and exciting, I am sceptical about some recent developments in baby room practice, supposedly underpinned by scientific research and evidence. My particular concern is the rise of black and white resources, displays and areas. For example, the handbook that goes with the Northamptonshire Baby Room Project states the following.

'The first year of life is a critical period for development and learning. During this time, babies have difficulty distinguishing between different tones and shades. During their first few months of life, they see mostly in shades of grey. High-contrasting colours, particularly black and white, are a simple and effective way to stimulate babies' vision. Black and white images in distinct regular patterns provide the highest possible contrast to the eye and gain babies' attention. This helps develop neural connections in the baby's brain. Babies are attracted to bold geometrical designs, and these images can hold their interest and help them to focus. Spaces rich in high quality displays are necessary to promote visual development.'

VISION RESEARCH

In general, the Northamptonshire Baby Room Project has had a very positive impact on practice. For example, in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, where I am early years adviser, it has helped many practitioners to reflect on and develop the quality of their practice. But in this particular respect, I would argue that the Project may have been taken in by some popular 'myths' about babies' visual abilities that have been propagated, mainly, by the toy industry.

For example, careful scientific research does not support the view that babies see mostly in shades of grey in the first few months of life, or that they 'need' to be exposed to large high-contrast (black-and-white) patterns to 'promote visual development'.

Professor Russell D Hamer of the University of Sao Paulo and affiliate scientist at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute in California, who has many years of experience studying infant vision, summarises the current understanding as follows. 'Infants have been shown to have colour vision at least as early as two to eight weeks post-natal (Allen, Banks and Norcia, 1993), and the likelihood is that they have colour vision at birth.'

While their colour vision certainly seems to be developing over the first months and years, it is by no means absent in young infants. Nor is there evidence to support the claim that during the first year of life, babies have difficulty in distinguishing between a wide range of shades of grey. For example, research by Norcia, Tyler and Hamer in 1990 showed that babies' brains at nine weeks of age can respond to contrasts as low as 0.5 per cent, only two times less sensitive than adults who were tested with the exact same patterns. A contrast of 0.5 per cent is extremely subtle indeed, having 200 times less contrast than black and white (100 per cent contrast) patterns. This high sensitivity to contrast occurs, initially, for patterns that are relatively large - like the size of your fingers held at arm's length. But infants are by no means unable to see finer patterns if they have higher contrast.

MISGUIDED APPROACH

If the science does not really stack up, then what about the practice? The handbook suggests that black and white patterns are an important resource because they gain babies' attention and therefore develop neural connections in the baby's brain. This claim is specious. While it is known that deprivation of pattern information arriving at the retina and brain (as can happen if a baby is born with a congenital cataract) can lead to a profound loss of acuity (detail vision) and contrast sensitivity, there is no evidence that the use of high-contrast large black-and-white patterns promote or accelerate development of neural connections in the visual centres of the brain. Thus the value of creating a high-contrast black-and-white environment is questionable.

I would argue that this approach to early years practice is misguided, and can mislead practitioners and parents alike. It is true that large high-contrast patterns do gain babies' attention (they certainly gain mine), but is this type of attention-grabbing practice good for babies? As the research shows that babies are able to see a broad repertoire of patterns, contrasts and colours, surely it would be preferable to allow babies to direct their own attention during exploratory play in a normal environment rich with a range of stimuli.

Yet marketing literature and even books for parents continue to claim that large black and white patterns are required to 'develop neural connections'. One must be mindful that these sorts of statements can be very powerful. They can make practitioners feel that unless they take the suggested actions, the baby's brain development will not be as good as it might have been. This puts people under a lot of pressure to bring in new practice.

Tina Bruce, Professor of Early Childhood Studies at Roehampton University, urges practitioners to take a different approach. She says, 'Quality practice refers to research and engages in dialogue with other practitioners about how it may or may not have application. It works best when it is building on the way parents spend time with their babies, so that parents are empowered and made confident. This avoids the problem of introducing innovations which are really pieces of fashion. Working with babies should never be based on passing fashions, but instead should embed tried and tested good practice, supported and informed by research and theory which helps practitioners to be reflective, and adjust their practice in conversations with parents and grandparents accordingly.'

NECESSARY STIMULATION

There are a few additional points to bear in mind here. First, there is an important difference between stimulating babies' perceptual development, such as hearing and vision, and their cognitive and social development. No particular techniques or pieces of equipment are needed to stimulate babies' perceptual development. Evolution has seen to that. On the other hand, babies do need affection, language, and play opportunities in order to develop cognitively and socially. Those developments do not 'just happen' - so in nursery, it is important that there is the right blend of care, stimulation and rest. In this respect, the Northamptonshire Baby Room Project has had a very positive influence on practice. It is also important to note that some babies with disabilities and special educational needs might require special forms of visual stimulation like high contrast patterns.

So what should practitioners do to help babies' visual development? Dr Hamer points out that 'a whole range of studies show that young infants have enough acuity, contrast sensitivity, colour vision and focusing ability for me to say that the most sensible visual environment to create for them is a very natural one with the full range of colours, saturations, contrasts, pattern sizes, movement and even aesthetic and socially relevant stimuli.'

In other words, you do not need to do anything much at all. Give babies an environment that has a normal range of colours, contrasts and motion, and their vision, attention and everything else will develop perfectly well in an atmosphere of care, cuddles, attention and affection.

I would like to thank Professor Russell D. Hamer for his help with the science underpinning this article. However, any errors are my own responsibility

Julian Grenier is early years advisor at the London Borough of Tower Hamlets

REFERENCES

• Allen D, Banks MS, Norcia AM, 'Does chromatic sensitivity develop more slowly than luminance sensitivity?' Vision Res. 1993 Dec;33(17): 2553-62

• Norcia AM, Tyler CW, Hamer RD 'Development of contrast sensitivity in the human infant.' Vision Res. 1990; 30(10):1475-86.

• Early Education's Baby Room Special Interest Group, www.early-education.org.uk or e-mail office@early-education.org.uk

• Northamptonshire Baby Room Project, www.northamptonshirebabyroom.org

• The Canterbury Christ Church Baby Room Project, www.canterbury.ac.uk/Research/Centres/CFC/ResearchProjects/Being/TheBaby Room.aspx.