Looking and Seeing

There's an enormous difference between 'looking' and 'seeing' and if you can get this through to your growing babies, then you will set them up for a life of learning! 'Looking' is the process of light being reflected off objects into our eyes and forming shapes and patterns.  'Seeing' is the ability to process those patterns into meaningful interpretations.  Let's illustrate this...glance around the room you are in and look at any clutter on surfaces of tables, shelves or whatever.  You can 'see' clutter without any problem, but in order to see what the clutter comprises, you have to 'look' more carefully, there might be particular books, a music player and CD's, coffee mugs and so on.

When it comes to learning, babies and toddlers must learn not just to 'see' objects, but to 'look' at them.  They need to examine and understand objects and work out what they are and how they work.  Foster an inquisitive nature in your children and have them question the world around them, they will quickly learn to 'look', interpret and understand, and they will pick up the fundamental principles required in order to learn throughout their growing lives.