Our best tips for using black-and-white cards to boost learning

Around 2 months of age, your baby may start to better detect vivid colors like red and green. But don’t put those black-and-white cards away just yet 😉

The contrast between light and dark still attracts their attention, helps them focus, and strengthens their eye muscles and optic nerves. They’re learning how to coordinate both eyes to see a single image—known as binocular vision—but need a lot of practice to fully develop this skill.

5 ways to take black and white to the next level

1. Introduce new, complex patterns

As your baby’s eyes get better at focusing and working together, you can start introducing new, more advanced high-contrast patterns. Try showing them one of the Complex Black & White Cards at a different angle—for example, if you usually show it to them horizontally, try it vertically instead. You can also introduce some novelty with a new card set, like the Black & White Universe Cards or the Black & White Ocean Cards.

Try this: Show your baby a Complex Black & White Card a few times in a row. Wait until they look away before you put the card down; when they look back, hold it up again. After a few repetitions, show them a different card or the same one rotated in a different direction. When they remain focused on an image or see it a few times, their brain is working to notice what’s different. 

2. Provide visual stimulation during diaper changes

Try putting some of the Black & White Wall Decals from The Looker Play Kit Book Bundle next to your changing table, both at your baby’s head level and a little bit above. This will give them something interesting to look at and you something to talk about—“Oh, you’re looking at the tree! You really like those little leaves.”

3. Mix it up in The Play Gym

Clip the Black & White Cards to the posts of The Play Gym and lay your baby on their back with the Black & White Card above their shoulder and about 10 inches away. This gives them practice moving their body, head, and eyes to find the point of focus. You can also flip over The Play Space Cover so the black-and-white dots are on the interior of the gym. 

4. Slowly move a card or toy to develop a new skill

Your baby is getting better at visual tracking, or following a moving object with their eyes. Try holding a dark or mostly dark object—a Black & White Card, a Black & White Mitten, the Silicone Rattle with Removable Ball, or even a household object like a dark lid to a jar—about 12 inches away from your baby’s face and moving it slowly back and forth. As your baby gets better at following the object with their eyes, you can try moving it farther away. 

Place your baby in different positions for tracking practice: lying on their back, in tummy time, or hold them upright. Try moving the black-and-white image up and to the right or left so your baby needs to turn their neck and tilt it back to see. This movement works their eye muscles and stretches and strengthens their neck at the same time. 

5. Talk about what they see

In the early weeks, your newborn could only process one sensory stream at a time; looking and listening simultaneously was overwhelming. At 2 months, they’re ready for more. When you shake the Silicone Rattle with Removable Ball or name the images on the Black & White Universe Cards or the Black & White Ocean Cards, your baby can starting pairing what they hear with what they see. 

In this post

The Looker Play Kit

The Looker Play Kit welcomes your newborn with tools to help them process the world around them and build brand new brain connections with high-contrast and black-and-white Playthings.

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Black and White Cards

High-contrast images with different patterns to help develop and strengthen your baby’s vision, while playful themes to build vocabulary. Learn more about the Lovevery Black & White Cards.

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The Play Gym

Lovevery’s award-winning, Montessori-inspired baby activity gym gives baby a whole year of play for their developing brain. See inside The Play Gym by Lovevery.

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