If you’ve ever wondered what babies are looking at when they stare off into space, it's probably nothing. Recently, the team at Clinic Compare, an eye care clinic in London, created a series of GIFs to help us better understand the limits of infant eyesight. The images reveal how young children actually perceive the world around them.

According to IFL Science, it’s not so much that babies’ eyes are unable to see, but rather that their brains (or the visual cortex part of their brains) are still learning how to process what they see into actual thoughts. As a result, babies’ eyesight at first has a very short range, only about eight to 10cm, Romesh Angunawela — a consultant eye surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, told Business Insider. This is because they must learn to see, just as they learn to walk and talk and interact with their environment. According to the American Optometric Association, children are not able to accurately focus on their parents' faces until they are about eight weeks old, and it’s not until they are about five months old that they begin to develop depth perception.

Read: Start Early For A Lifetime Of Good Vision And Healthy Eyes

In addition, babies’ color vision is also undeveloped at birth, although the AOA reported that most babies are able to see the world in full color by about five months old.

Children’s eyesight actually continues to develop until they are about two years old, and by then they have eye-hand coordination and have fully developed their depth perception.

Because a baby's eyesight is so underdeveloped, it can be difficult to note eye problems, but the AOA stresses that early intervention is the best for helping to correct problems. Babies can't use language to tell you of problems with their vision, but parents can note certain signs. For example, extreme sensitivity to light could be a sign of extreme pressure inside of the eye, while constant eye turning could be a sign of a problem with eye muscle control.

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This Gif helps us better understand how an infant's eyesight develops. Gif Courtesy of Clinic Compare

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