Revista Brasileira de Saúde Materno Infantil (Mar 2010)
Desenvolvimento do olhar e do contato ocular em lactentes de zero a quatro meses de idade The development of looking behavior and eye-contact in breast feeding children aged between 0 and 4 months
Abstract
OBJETIVOS: investigar o desenvolvimento do contato ocular e do comportamento visual de bebês entre zero e quatro meses. MÉTODOS: dezessete bebês típicos foram filmados mensalmente por 30 minutos, sendo transcritas 11 categorias de observação do olhar, quantificadas e tratadas estatisticamente através dos testes de Friedman (α = 0,050) e dos Postos Sinalizados de Wilcoxon (α de Bonferroni = 0,010). RESULTADOS: houve diferenças estatisticamente significantes nas frequências das categorias: "olhar para os olhos da mãe" (pOBJECTIVES: to investigate the development of eye-contact and visual behavior in babies aged between 0 and 4 months. METHODS: sixteen normal babies were filmed monthly for 30 minutes, and 11 eleven visual behavior categories observed and transcribed. These were then quantified and treated statistically using the Friedman test (α = 0.050) and Wilcoxon's Signed Rank test (Bonferroni's α = 0,010). RESULTS: there were statistical differences in frequency between the various categories: "looking mother in the eye" (p<0.001), "looking mother in the face" (p<0.001), "looking at an object" (p<0.001), "looking at the researcher" (p<0.001), "actively looking at the surroundings" (p<0.001), "passively looking at the surroundings" (p<0.001), "looking at own body" (p=0.001) and "eyes closed" (p=0.005). Eye-contact was detected in the third week of life in 64.7% and developed during the first five months of life (p=0.010 in 50% of the intervals between data collection). CONCLUSIONS: eye-contact can be detected from the neonatal period onwards and develops over the first few months of life. The frequency of the baby's eye-contact with its mother increases longitudinally in the first four months. Other focuses of attention, apart from the mother's eyes, are also fundamental during the early stages of development outside the womb.
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