Snag AcademyHigh-contrast baby cards
Black-and-white cards for the first months, grouped by what they show. Take one card, print it, and come back for the next when your baby stops noticing it. No app, no screen, no sign-up.
A newborn focuses sharply at about 20–30 cm and sees light and dark long before colour, so a bold black-and-white edge is the strongest signal their visual system can process. The evidence for that, and why we deliver it on paper rather than a display, is set out in full — briefly: WHO recommends no screen time under one and the AAP recommends none under 18 months, and the contrast research says nothing about needing a screen to deliver it.
Downloading one at a time is deliberate. A baby engages with a new pattern for a few days and then stops noticing it. One card, printed and used until it is dull, then another, works better than a folder of images you never open again.
Shapes
The first things an infant's visual system can lock on to: a closed outline with a hard edge and nothing inside it competing for attention.
Nature
Sun, moon and weather — the shapes you can point at through a window, so the card and the world reinforce each other.
Animals
Whole-body silhouettes with one exaggerated feature — the trunk, the shell, the fin — because that is what makes a shape nameable later on.
Birds
Birds get their own set because the outline changes so much with posture — perched, swimming, in flight — while staying the same creature.
How to use them
- Print in black and white on the heaviest paper your printer takes. Card is better than paper, but paper glued to a cereal box works just as well.
- Hold one about 25 cm from your baby's face while they are calm and alert.
- From around five weeks, move it slowly side to side — following it is the exercise.
- Swap the card when they stop looking. That is not failure; it is the whole signal.
- Prop one inside the cot or beside the changing mat, where they already spend time looking at nothing.
What these are not
These are a pleasant few minutes, not a programme. High-contrast cards hold a young baby's gaze because of how early vision develops — they are not brain training, they will not raise anyone's IQ, and nobody can sell you something that will. The things that matter most at this age are still holding your baby, talking to them, and reading aloud long before they understand a word of it.
For older children there is Spot the Snag, our printable pack for ages 3–5, and high-contrast patterns for newborns — stripes, checks and spirals rather than pictures. Our app itself starts at Class 1.