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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

When can kids start to identify colours?

40 replies

Devonlover · 23/05/2013 14:50

My DS is 2.1 and can't seem to tell the difference between all the main colours - everything is red! he's got a good vocab and his speech is coming along really well so it's not that he can't say the words out loud, so i just wondered when he'll be able to start naming colours.

He's pretty sharp on most things, doesn't miss a trick really, so it seems kind of weird he can't tell the difference between say, a red cup and a yellow banana!

OP posts:

GiveMummyTheWhizzer · 23/05/2013 15:08

DS is 2.9 and has been able to since about 2yrs. But I've got no proper knowledge of when is the average age.

Onemole · 23/05/2013 15:30

Dd1 about 3ish

Dd2 11 months

Think Dd1 is more the norm.

VinegarDrinker · 23/05/2013 15:31

Well before 18 months here, no idea what's "normal" though

DuelingFanjo · 23/05/2013 15:33

DS is 2 and 6 months and asked me for the purple paint yesterday.

JollyOrangeGiant · 23/05/2013 15:34

DS consistently gets colours right. Haven't heard him get one wrong since before Christmas. He's now 25mo.

But he was ready to learn colours. We started at about 18mo as he was interested. I don't know that all that many of his peers are getting colours right consistently.

Longdistance · 23/05/2013 15:36

My dd's 23 months, and only knows pink so far. Typical girl, I wouldn't worry too much, I think dd1 was nearly 2.5, but she has had speech problems.

ISpyPlumPie · 23/05/2013 15:39

Think DS1 was between 18 months and 2 years. I remember having a bit of a pfb panic about him being colour-blind () as he seemed to be getting the same colours mixed up consistently but then it just clicked. I can't remember precisely when but know it was before his second birthday as had been thinking about getting him the toy paint pot that changes colours, but suddenly it seemed that he'd moved on from it.

MrsPennyapple · 23/05/2013 15:43

DD is 22 months and is about 90% correct. Most of the incorrect answers are when she doesn't actually look, and just guesses at green.

strawberrie · 23/05/2013 15:46

DD could at 19/20 months. DS is currently 22 months and nowhere near being able to identify colours, his complete vocabulary is probably only just in double figures.

PipkinsPal · 23/05/2013 15:52

My niece is 2.11 and has a good vocabulary, if you ask her which one is blue she will point to the correct one. If you show her something and say what colour is that she usually says any colour than it actually is, pink and yellow are favourites at the moment. I wouldn't worry too much.

janey223 · 23/05/2013 15:54

DS is 16m and knows purple, blue, yellow and green & can identify orange but not say it. He loves pointing to the colours on his xylophone and the bathroom tiles and getting me to tell him them

Happiestinwellybobs · 23/05/2013 16:00

DD has just turned two - knows yellow & pink, and can say red, blue,green, purple etc but she is not always right.

BrianButterfield · 23/05/2013 16:06

Ds is 21 months and knows "all his colours" according to nursery although I doubt they do magenta etc! I started teaching them at about 16 months and he learnt the obvious ones immediately, but he's also a good talker which helps as he even has a stab at "onange".

MoelFammau · 23/05/2013 17:57

DD is 24mo and can correctly identify and say Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, White, Black, Orange, Purple, Pink and Silver. She sort of knows Brown and Grey but it's a bit hit and miss there. She's known Yellow, Red, Black and Blue since 19mo, the others came along just before she hit 2.

DD was deaf for the first 22 months of her life so I've no idea how things would've gone if she'd been a hearing kid. She got Blue and Green confused for a few months, btw.

LittleNutTree · 23/05/2013 18:38

DD1 was about 3yrs and DD2 was just past 2 when they could reliably tell me which colours were which. For some reason, I really worried about DD1 not knowing before she started ante-pre-school nursery, but they told me that it was completely normal she did know the names of all the bloody Disney princesses however,

noisytoys · 23/05/2013 19:03

DD1 knew them all by 2

DD2 is 2.8 now and doesn't know any colours or shapes

freetrait · 23/05/2013 20:36

My kids were young, less than 2, but I think anything up to 4 or even 5 is quite normal! And also normal is when they start they call everything one colour. I remember for DS everything was blue .

MortifiedAdams · 23/05/2013 20:39

Dd is 17mo and can recognise red, yellow, green and blue (picks the right one when I say "get the red/blue one" I mean), however if I hold out something and ask what colour it is, she says red

ChasingStaplers · 23/05/2013 20:41

My DD was just over a year but DS1 was nearer 2.

Get that Mo Mo song from Show Me, Show Me and he'll have them in no time (even indigo and violet :) )

juneybean · 23/05/2013 20:43

DC3 is 18 months and starting to pick up on them, usually significant colours like yellow because their door is yellow.

Belmo · 23/05/2013 20:47

15 or 16 months I think, but her speech was really good. Huge range or normal I think!

MoelFammau · 23/05/2013 21:28

DD first called everything 'yellow'. In fact, for her 'yellow' first meant Playdoh and paint because I only had yellow Playdoh at one point.

MiaSparrow · 23/05/2013 21:45

DD was very young - 13/14 months, maybe. But only because she had an obsession with coloured clothes pegs.

duchesse · 23/05/2013 21:49

All my children are very bright but none knew their colours reliably before 2. I remember ringing my health visitor in a panic because PFB couldn't tell the difference between yellow and blue at 2.1 and I was worrying about colour blindness. She laughed at me.

Colour is a social construct- it takes time to learn. Did you know the ancient Greeks had no notion of pink at all?

Ragusa · 23/05/2013 23:07

DS is 2.7 and has very little idea about colours. He knows lots of colour names, and he knows that his sister likes purple, but cannot for the life of him recognise and name the colours of things.

I think he is busy learning other things. DD was great with colours and I am sure she could recognise them all by the age of 2, but she was hopeless with anything practical or mechanical, still is. DS is completely the other way.

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