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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

How early should a child know colours?

26 replies

bran · 14/07/2006 20:25

I'm starting to wonder if ds (2.1) might be colour blind as he doesn't seem to 'get' colours at all. His speech is very good and he uses lots of adjectives to describe things, but never uses colour and guesses at random if asked what colour something is. He doesn't sort his lego/bricks into colours and doesn't seem able to join in if I do it, eg if I make a separate pile of each colour of lego he will help me add pieces to the pile but only seems to differentiate between pale and dark (eg he will put green onto the yellow pile or blue onto the red pile).

I'm more curious than worried really, as I guess he's too young to be tested yet and even if he is colour-blind it's not going to affect his life all that much. When did everyone else's child start to demonstrate that they could see colour?

OP posts:

Twiglett · 14/07/2006 20:28

far too early

sorting lego blocks into colours ... not normal behaviour

colditz · 14/07/2006 20:29

He was younger than two, but because of his speech we only noticed it because he was sorting bricks! he wasn't much younger than two though.

colditz · 14/07/2006 20:29

X posts with twig - worried now!

Original poster

bran · 14/07/2006 20:38

I think that perhaps Twiglett meant that it's not a standard thing that all children do. I wouldn't worry Colditz, a few of ds's friends sort things by colour but not all of them. But most of them seem to have some recognition that colours are different, which ds just hasn't demostrated yet.

OP posts:

jabberwocky · 14/07/2006 20:39

I think it really varies quite a bit. Ds got into things like that quite early, but a friend has a child who is 2 next month and just barely starting to learn colors.

Posey · 14/07/2006 20:42

I work in a pre-school, and it varies hugely. Some at just over 2 know lots, including turquoise, silver etc, others think all colours are pink

mistressmiggins · 14/07/2006 20:44

I would say dont worry
DS (4 1.2 now) didnt know colours
DD (2) was tested recently & got 10/10 - HV said never seen this as this test was aged 4.....so what.....all kids different & have different talents

jofeb04 · 14/07/2006 20:45

My ds started this only a couple of months ago, must have been around 2.3.
He has never sorted bricks out etc, and when we sorted them into colours etc, he just throws them at me!!
we learned ds with cars, hes obsessed with them!

Original poster

bran · 14/07/2006 20:47

Posey, for months ds would always answer 'blue' when asked what colour anything was. It was a great trick when he was about 15 months or so, I could really startle people by pointing at something blue and asking ds what colour it was.

Now he answers randomly, he knows the name of lots of colours but hasn't linked them to actual colours. He can accurately name the colour of something like my car, but I suspect that might be because he's been told that my car is black lots oftimes.

OP posts:

TwoToTango · 14/07/2006 20:49

I think my ds was at least 3.5 before he was reliable for all colours. Did same as jofeb04 and used to ask him colours of cars or ask how many cards of a certain colour he could spot.

jofeb04 · 14/07/2006 20:50

Bran,
We started off by walking him around a car park to the shop (not parking close to it etc), and said "red car", "blue car" etc, as my ds repeats everything. We started off with easy colours, only red blue, yellow and black, colours that easily stand our etc. He just started saying it himeself really etc.
HTH

jabberwocky · 14/07/2006 21:00

highjack warning - Just wanted to say hi Jo, and how are things going?

Original poster

bran · 14/07/2006 21:14

I've been doing the colours of cars thing since the winter, mainly because he was so interested in classifying other things about cars (eg he'll identify them as sports cars, mini cars, vans etc). He loves mechanical things and has been nameing things like road rollers, rubbish trucks, diggers, dump trucks for months, but although he'll repeat it if I say "big, blue, rubbish truck", if he spots it first he'll just say "big rubbish truck" or "car going fast" and never spontaneously say the colour.

I'll wait a bit longer then before I start to worry. I only really noticed last weekend at a party when one of his friends asked for the 'yellow ball', and I realised that ds had never used a colour as a descriptor of his own accord or even ever had a colour preference.

OP posts:

Original poster

bran · 14/07/2006 21:16

Forgot to say thanks for your comments everyone. I never remember to say thank you, I have terrible manners. Of course it's all the fault of my parents you know.

OP posts:

Posey · 14/07/2006 21:20

bran - your thing about cars reminds me of a time took dd's friend out in car with us. He was a little under 3 at the time. He gave this running commentary...
"thats a ford mondeo, thats a dihatsu, thats a rover, thats a ford escort, thats Al Green's car, thats a Daiwoo, thats a crappy car..." And so it went on from Crouch End to Wembley

PieceOfPith · 14/07/2006 21:23

DS1 knows most colours - one of his first words was "purple" at about 18mo.

He knows, reliably, red, green, yellow, blue, purple, pink, brown, black, silver, white, orange and sometimes gold and has done since before he was 2.

He's 2.3. I don't think it's anything to worry about whether they know colours or not at this age though, is it?

Bozza · 14/07/2006 21:24

What's all this sorting lego bricks? I am teaching DD to sort the washing.

Twiglett · 14/07/2006 21:39

sorry colditz didn't mean to worry you .. that was clumsily phrased .. I meant what bran said

Bozza · 15/07/2006 14:58

She is fairly rubbish at it mind you - too hung up on who owns which pants.

MaloryTowers · 15/07/2006 15:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

hunkermunker · 15/07/2006 15:01

Think DS1's favourite is pink. He wanted pink sandals the other day...

MaloryTowers · 15/07/2006 15:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

hunkermunker · 15/07/2006 15:03

Oh, I know. DH went all manly about it.

DS1 has brown shoes (his second favourite colour seems to be brown - will he wear the blue doodles I got him, no, he wants his heavy brown shoes - gah!)

jambot · 15/07/2006 16:05

DD at 16 months can identify red so far. Haven't really pushed it much, but it took her about 2 days to get the idea with the first colour.

Mimsie · 15/07/2006 20:44

DS knew his colours at 2 but I thought it was mainly out of lazyness on his part, as in he only learned his colours and pointed at things he wanted whilst saying their colours. Saved him having to know the actual words! That said colourblindness run in my family (My dad, uncle, and one cousin are) so I encouraged him learning them to see if he was... Do you know anyone in your family who is?

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