View Full Version : When can kids close one eye?
Runs With Scissors
08-31-2009, 12:55 AM
I was trying to teach my friend's three year old son how to do "I'm crushing your head!" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbETsbv1NZ4) but he couldn't close just one eye so he didn't get it.
Tell ya what, though...watching him contort his face trying to close one eye was better than if I'd taught him that annoying shtick.
Presumably, he'll be able to eventually...when can most people do this?
If anyone has kids aged two to six, take an informal survey :)
Ruken
08-31-2009, 08:42 AM
I remember in preschool some kids couldn't do it. I thought they were dumb. This would be 4-5 year-olds. Maybe some kids in kindergarten, but I don't remember so well.
Baracus
08-31-2009, 08:57 AM
My daughter is 3 years and 3 months old and just started to be able to do this about a month ago. She started off by closing both eyes and then just opening one. I think she can go straight to closing one eye now, but I am not sure.
HeyHomie
08-31-2009, 10:56 AM
Until this very moment, I had never once thought of the ability to close one eye as a developmental milestone (such as potty training). Nor had I ever thought about my own development and when I could close one eye.
However, I note that at age 39 I totally can only sneer on one side of my mouth.
Susie Derkins
08-31-2009, 11:08 AM
My daughter didn't learn until she was about 6 or so. Here she is at five (http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y152/susie_derkins21/HPIM0645.jpg), giving it her best attempt.
3:20:59 or bust
08-31-2009, 01:03 PM
If they run with scissors, perhaps sooner than you'd like...
But seriously folks, some people (ahem!) never learn to close one eye, i.e. wink, even as adults.
elfkin477
09-01-2009, 12:56 AM
I was preschool age when I learned to close my right eye independently of the left. I get the sense that you're supposed to be able to close each eye individually, though. I can't close my left eye on its own.
Freudian Slit
09-01-2009, 01:09 AM
Let me know. I'm still waiting. Age 24.
khere
09-01-2009, 01:22 AM
I can only wink with my right eye. The closest I come to being able to wink with my left is if I close both eyes first, as I can open my right eye while leaving my left eye shut. I do remember this is how I originally learnt to wink with my right eye (maybe age 7-8?) but I guess once I conquered that little milestone I had no reason to practise with the other eye...
elfkin477
09-01-2009, 01:54 AM
I can only wink with my right eye.Is that your non-dominant eye too? This wiki article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wink) about winking says that it's common for those of us who can only wink with one eye to do so with the non-dominant one. I'm left everything dominant, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it's the right eye that can close by its ownsome.
the first supraliminal
09-01-2009, 07:20 AM
Can you wiggle one ear? I can.
emmaliminal
09-01-2009, 07:33 AM
... I note that at age 39 I totally can only sneer on one side of my mouth.I taught myself to sneer on the left side in my 30s, and to raise my left eyebrow solo (I could always do the right one) in my 20s. It helps to be bored and have time to kill and/or recently have watched someone do these things to great effect.
So take heart, all you adult asymmetrical-facial-gesture impaired! It's not too late!
My son is 3 years 5 months and he's been able to wink for months. He can do either eye. Here's a picture! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/8173731@N06/3877365561/)
(incidentally, that picture was taken 1 week after his third birthday.)
HeyHomie
09-01-2009, 09:54 AM
My son is 3 years 5 months and he's been able to wink for months. He can do either eye. Here's a picture! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/8173731@N06/3877365561/)
(incidentally, that picture was taken 1 week after his third birthday.)
Teh cute! It burns!!!
Teh cute! It burns!!!
:D It's especially cute when he's doing something he shouldn't be, winks at me and says, "I love you, Mommy!" He's a bit of a handful.
ChordedZither
09-01-2009, 02:19 PM
There is an old game that goes by various names, but I learned it as "Murder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wink_murder)". A group of people sit in a circle, usually with lights dimmed. One person has been secretly designated as the murderer. You all sit around watching one another. The murderer dispatches a victim by winking at them, hopefully at a moment when no one else is looking directly at them. The victim must count silently to 3, get up and leave the circle. People can accuse someone they think is the murderer. If no one supports the accusation, the accuser leaves the game. If two people accuse the same person but are wrong, the accusers must leave. The game continues until only murderer is left or until two people correctly accuse the murder.
Now. after several minutes, most people are blinking a lot, involuntarily, so the difference between a wink and a blink is crucial.
We had played two or three games of this, once, when the next game seemed to drag on forever with no victims dispatched. Finally, a 15-year old complained to someone else, "I've winked at you 4 times. Why won't you leave?" The "victim" said she had seen no such thing. It turned out that our chosen murderer for that round simply could not wink with just one eye. No matter hiow many times he tried, he always blinked both eyes. but he had been completely unaware that he could not actually wink.
StinkyBurrito
09-01-2009, 02:46 PM
My son is 3 years 5 months and he's been able to wink for months. He can do either eye. Here's a picture! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/8173731@N06/3877365561/)
(incidentally, that picture was taken 1 week after his third birthday.)
Those pants are sweet. Do they make them is size 38?
Those pants are sweet. Do they make them is size 38?
I made them! For a generous fee, I could make you some, too!
Chicken Fingers
09-01-2009, 04:16 PM
My 5 and 3/4 year old can finally wink. I ask her regularly, because her facial contortions make me laugh so hard.
HeyHomie
09-02-2009, 02:45 PM
Mrs. Homie here. Hi.
On Aaron's (Mr. Homie's) urging, I tried this experiment on my class of four-year-olds (Im a preschool teacher). Six out of fifteen could do it.
Aaron (HH) will be publishing my findings in the Journal of Pediatrics in the next few months.
Runs With Scissors
09-02-2009, 09:14 PM
Mrs. Homie here. Hi.
On Aaron's (Mr. Homie's) urging, I tried this experiment on my class of four-year-olds (Im a preschool teacher). Six out of fifteen could do it.
Aaron (HH) will be publishing my findings in the Journal of Pediatrics in the next few months.
I'm very surprised! I'll have to do an informal survey amongst the kindergartners at school. I might even ask my own students (ten-year-olds) and see.
Stainz
09-07-2009, 12:17 AM
I can't wink at all (I'm 39) - I can kind of squinch up the right side of my face and it FEELS like I'm winking, but I'm SO not ...
Can't even get CLOSE on my left side.
As for sneering, although I never thought about it until I read this thread, I can do it on my left side only.
I don't think my daughter (almost 4) will be able to wink either .. she takes after her wink-deficient mom. :(
NikkiNik
09-29-2009, 09:29 AM
My son is 20 months old and can wink with one eye.. Only the right one though.. when he tries the left one he ends up closing both eyes.. it's cut to watch him concentrating on it
Polly Glot
09-29-2009, 04:04 PM
The weirdest thing I beheld in my newborn son (and I mean mere seconds after he was born - I was just getting to hold him) was that he looked up at me with one eye closed. Then after a few moments had passed, he closed that eye and opened the other one. "Lather, rinse, repeat" a couple of more times until it was time for grandma to hold him.
For what it's worth, he's now 9 years old, and he's smart as a whip but suffers from severe myopia and ADHD.
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