Is my three year old red-green colourblind?

[TheKnightsThatSayNee]

My dd is three. She has known all her colours for about a year but she still gets red and green mixed up all the time. She gets every other colour right 100% of the time including pink (which is surely just light red).
Could she be colour blind?

It's not unusual for a three yet old to still get those two colours muddled up but be able to name ones like purple and turquoise. I wouldn't be bothered yet at all. I would if it was still happening at 5.

Colour blindness is pretty unusual in girls, but there are some online tests you can do; there are ones with shapes if she can't recognise numbers yet...just google.

we saw an optician because of hereditary colour blindsness inthe family and she said that they can only really test for colour blindness around 6/7yo.

Thanks for your replies it seems odd that she can do every other colour but I'll just have to wait and see. Ill google the tests you mentioned as well.

I've childminded two children who appeared to be colour blind at this age. Both were very convincing and consistent in their inability to distinguish colours. One turned out to be colour blind and the other one was fine.

Let your HV and anyone else who cares for her know and wait to see what happens. She may well turn out to be fine.

I don't think it is likely. DS is colour blind - he could easily and consistently identify bright colours from an early age but had difficulty with more muted shades. The only real way to test for colour blindness is by using a specific colour blindness test.

Colour blindness is unusual in girls and inability to distinguish bright red from bright green would be at the extremely severe end of the colour blindness spectrum.

she could be but more likely she's just taking her time to acquire them. I've been worried about ds and his reds and blues. Turns out he can identify them when I ask him to get me a blue or red ball but if I ask him what colour something is he can't tell me. Weird because he's known purples, pinks and non primary colours for ages! He's 3.3yo.

I've just done this test and she passed so I think she is just taking her time. She did say the bear was an elephant though.

My dd was exactly the same at that age. I asked my friend who was an OT what she thought and her answer was that dd simply doesn't know red and green yet and we must be patient. She was right, a couple of months later dd could reliably distinguish between those two colours.

I'm going to start pointing out red and green things more and hopefully she'll get it before nursery school in September. I'm glad it's probably not colour blindness. Good old mn always has the answers.

I have a colour blind son. He can tell red from green even though he apparently has red/green colour blindness!

What he can't do for toffee, is differentiate between subtle shades of within a colour. For example in a reddish brown he might just see brown, and in a greenish brown he might just see green. A light brown or a heather-mauve might both just be grey to him. He'd see them as different greys but he's struggle to articulate what the difference was! And if you showed him lime green he couldn't be sure whether it was green or yellow.

But he can tell the difference between red and green.

It's really too young to tell just yet- children are still getting good grasp on colours at this age, if she is still having difficulties in a year or so, then start looking into it. Until then, just bring it up naturally in conversation "can you bring me the red ball etc..."

DH is quite badly colour blind. He could easily tell the difference between bright red and bright green (as long as they're not red and green lights or LEDs, he can't see those at all) but cannot see purple at all and will happily sort lime green and orange Lego blocks into one pile thinking they're the same colour.

It tends to be the colours in between rather than definite red and green for him despite being "red/green colour blind"

My dh really can't see the difference between red and green (or brown for that matter) if the shade is the same then they look the same to him. Lime green and yellow are also the same to him. It's hard to imagine as someone who sees colour, but really came to the fore when I got into gardening and he couldn't tell when the red geraniums were in flower as to him the red flowers and the green leaves were the same shade.

He can tell the difference between red and green traffic lights, although that might be mostly positional. He is still a bit sad from being told as a small child he couldn't be a train driver!

Red-green colour-blindness is extremely rare in girls because although it's carried on the X-chromosome it's most unusual for girls to have TWO defective X-chromosomes. The 'right' one normally compensates (boys get colour-blindness from their mothers because they then have a defective X and no second X to compensate). So for girls to be colourblind they MUST have a colour-blind father and a 'carrier' mother. So if your DP isn't red-green colourblind then your DD isn't.

That's really interesting, ZuleikaD.

DS isn't nearly as severe as your DH, nooka, (more like Holly's DS) and his colour-blindness has never really affected him in any practical sense, but he is still excluded from any occupation that involves passing a colour-blindness test.

Ummm the eye is not able to distinguish colours fully and properly until the child is 3-4 years old (in general). It is not big enough (or something) until then so the colour spectrummy ray-ey things do not quite align. Hence they will not test til 6/7 yo. Then colour blindness could be diagnosed.

Children before the age of 3-4 may be able to learn their colours - with a lot of input and coaching. Often it just will be a hard slog. Or wait til 3/4/5 and the eye works for colours and the natural curiosity takes them onward.

Seriously do not worry cos I did 3-4 years ago when my DD was this age and found out all of ^^. Hence in it a bit vague.

My uncle, brother and even my grandmother (unusual, I know) are, or were, red/green colour blind, so I was resigned to the fact that DS probably would be too. However, I took DS to the standard NHS eye-test that they all get (at least in Devon) at four years old, and the ophthalmologist tested him and said he isn't. Surprise!

I mention this because he can still muddle up colours, especially green and yellow, but it sounds like his eyesight is normal.

Well dp is not colour blind so that must mean she cannot be. I think if it could be a case of not even having developed the correct anatomy then I wont sweat it. Ill just try an concentrate on getting her to do as shes told for now, that should keep me busy ;0)