Picture cards for the first months
Their first discoveries start with you.
Picture cards with a Parent Side, so you can share the picture and find your own words.
The collections
A growing world to discover.
Bold pictures to share, with words for the grown-up holding the card. Four collections to explore, each a printable set of sixteen cards.
Everyday Foods
Available
Familiar foods to share at mealtimes and in between.
$7.99 · Printable PDF
Space
Available
Sun, moon, planets and rockets, drawn simply.
$7.99 · Printable PDF
Christmas
Available
Seasonal pictures for a baby’s first December.
$7.99 · Printable PDF
Dinosaurs
Available
Dinosaurs, an egg and a footprint to talk about.
$7.99 · Printable PDF
The Parent Side
A picture for your baby, and the words are there for you.
Each card folds over, so the picture faces your baby while the notes face you. You never have to turn the card around to remember what to say.
“That’s an apple with a leaf on top.”
Use the words on the card or say it your own way. There is nothing for your baby to answer.
Sample card from Everyday Foods. Digital artwork shown.
What the Parent Side says — card 01 / 16, Apple
- Distance
- About ten inches from your baby's face.
- Hold
- Keep the card still at first.
- Say
- “That's an apple with a leaf on top.”
- Watch for
- See whether your baby looks toward the apple.
- Stop
- Put the card down if your baby turns away.
You can use these words or say it your own way.
Newborn vision and early conversation
What babies see, and why your voice matters.
A picture gives you somewhere to begin. Your voice makes it a moment together.
In the first weeks
8–12 inches
Where newborns see best
In the first weeks, newborns see best at about 8–12 inches—roughly the distance between your baby’s eyes and yours during a feed.
Hold a picture nearby, keep it still at first, and follow your baby’s interest.
As babies grow · At 18 months
About 100 vs. 60 words
Average vocabulary reported by parents
In one randomized parent-coaching study, parents in the coaching group reported an average of about 100 words in their children’s vocabulary at 18 months, compared with about 60 in the comparison group. Coaching in expressive speech and back-and-forth interaction took place at 6, 10 and 14 months.
This tested parent coaching, not picture cards. These are group averages, not targets for your baby.
- 01
Close is where it begins.
A newborn's distance vision is blurry. The American Academy of Pediatrics describes about 8–12 inches as the distance newborns see best.
- 02
Contrast makes a difference.
Newborn vision is still developing, including sensitivity to subtle differences between light and dark. High-contrast pictures offer something simple to look at together.
- 03
Your face and voice belong in the picture.
Experiments show that newborn preferences for faces depend partly on the arrangement of light and dark. Your baby hears the sounds and rhythm of your voice before understanding the words.
These studies describe early vision and parent interaction; they did not test Sir Isaac Newborn cards.
The Parent Side offers something natural to say, so you can spend more of the moment sharing the picture.
- Brown, A. M., Opoku, F. O., & Stenger, M. R. (2018)
- Measured newborn contrast sensitivity and visual acuity using patterned test cards. Read on PubMed Central
- Farroni, T., et al. (2005)
- Found that newborn preference for upright face images depended on darker areas around the eyes and mouth. Read on PubMed
- Ferjan Ramírez, N., Lytle, S. R., & Kuhl, P. K. (2020)
- A randomized trial of parent coaching from 6 to 18 months, with 71 infants analyzed and vocabulary measured through 70 parent questionnaires. The averages of about 100 and about 60 words are rounded group means as reported by the University of Washington. Coaching included individual feedback, activity guidance and books; no single component was isolated. Read on PubMed Central · University of Washington summary
- Vally, Z., et al. (2015)
- 91 South African caregiver–toddler pairs, 14–16 months old at enrollment, with 82 followed up. After eight weeks of coached picture-book sharing, caregivers reported a mean of 56 words understood on an 89-word checklist, compared with 44 in the comparison group. That is a count on the checklist, not a child’s total vocabulary. An independent comprehension measure, adjusted for baseline, did not reach significance (p = .06). This was a specific coaching intervention, not newborn cards. Read on PubMed Central
- American Academy of Pediatrics
- Parent guidance on early vision, one-month milestones, and hearing and speech. Baby’s vision development · Milestones, 1 month · Hearing and making sounds
Our formats
The same considered approach, in different forms.
Printable picture cards are the format we have prepared first, and every collection is available as one. Printed decks and book editions are planned.
Print at home
Download, print and fold your own cards, from any of the four collections.
Printed cards
Finished decks for sharing the pictures together.
In planning
Book editions
Bound editions of the collections, for looking at page by page.
In planning