Talk to me about colourblindness...

[SoupDragon]

As a family, we play a stupid game in the car where you have to spot cars of certain colours. One of these is purple.

DS2 (10) has never spotted a purple one. At the weekend, he argued with me that a purple car was blue and it dawned on me that he was probably colourblind. Sure enough, an online test using those spotty cards with the hidden numbers made it abundantly clear that he was as he couldn't see any of the numbers at all.

I assume that it really doesn't matter and I don't need to do anything?

Apart from the fact he can probably not be a pilot when he grows up :)

[Milliways]

We had a colour blind student at work who would never ask when unsure of colours (embarrassed teenager) so was forever misfiling coloured discs and failing to select the correct colour to "drop-out" when scanning documents.

However, he did well at school and is now doing well at Uni and it will not hinder his chosen career (unless someone writes something in red-ink and expects him to notice this is red/important).

Just saying, let him let others know, in case colours ARE relevant in any situation.

[CMOTdibbler]

BIL is totally colourblind, and hasn't had any problems from it. But it is useful to know

[littlebrownmouse]

My 8 year old is colour blind. The optician picked it up and when he did, lots of things fell into Place. He's never been good at jigsaws, is always putting things in the wrong dustbin (ours are brown and green) and walked into our village notice board loads of times when it was first put there (it's a muddy green colour against a background of trees in the middle distance. He manages really well, learned his colours etc. I think he'll have problems with things such as litmus paper, maps etc as he gets older, but as 1 in 12 males are colour blind, I'm not too worried about it. Maybe you should take your son to the optician and ask for a test, then take it from there.

[SoupDragon]

Oooh, replies to my dull thread :) Thanks.

The interesting thing is that it really hasn't been apparent before now, not in everyday life. No problem with inks, bins, jigsaws, learnt his colours as a toddler... nothing, but he really couldn't see the hidden numbers at all. I know he's not faking as (bless him) he was in tears as he thinks it makes him sound stupid.

I find it fascinating. My father is colourblind, and it is also present on DSs father's side of the family so it isn't unexpected.

He will get tested when he starts secondary school as a matter of course so, given he is upset about it and it doesn't seem to be a problem for him, I may just mention it to his current teacher at some point and leave it for now. We may have to remove purple from the car spotting game though :)

[DBennett]

You may want to look at free computer programs such as Daltonize found here.

The can manipulate computer pictures to enable people with some types of colour blindness to differentiate colours better.

You'll need to check the occupational vision standards for careers when he is a little older as they do sometimes change.

[littlebrownmouse]

I'm not sure I can remember seeing a purple car....

[catinthehat2]

help him out as he gets older - on the odd occasion you can spot a colour blind chap who obviously thinks he's wearing an inoffensive greeny browny boring jumper & trousers, but is in fact wearing red top & bottom half (was put onto this by highly colour blind colleague)

[wonkylegs]

Lots of guys in my profession (architecture) seem to be CB, somebody suggested that this was due to the high incidence of men in the profession and it being more common in men , anyhow I digress, this just means I work with lots if CB men it's not really a problem even in a highly visual profession like mine. Most seem to adapt and work with in their limitations. The only problem we have had is with guys with red green CBness & rail work , they aren't allowed to do trackside inspections /visits due to the safety measures & signalling, you can't pass the req tests if your CB,
One guy at work is CB and still insists on choosing paint colours but we usual take the piss til he realises it's not his forte but tbh this also applies to a guy who isn't CB

[SoupDragon]

Purple cars are rare... the Ford Ka clearly came in purple at some point and some other small car, not sure what. :) They usually are small cars, I'm not sure I've seen a large one. Pink ones are rarer... :o

I don't think he is severely affected as I would surely have noticed before now.

His current career choice is doctor... He's wanted to be one since he was 4. God... I hope he's not excluded from that!

I'll look at the computer thingy but he doesn't seem to have any issues at all.

thanks.