Colour blindness

[DuckBilledAardvark]

At what age can/will/should you worry about colourblindness? DS is 3, he’s got a good grasp of colours but I’ve noticed he gets red/green confused out of context.

I bought something today that quite clearly has a red element to it and he kept referring to it as green, I had worried about red/green in the past but he seemed to have got it, but now I wonder if he just knew the correct colour 90% of the time because of the context.

He’s not due to start school until 2019 so is it worth giving it another year before I seek help or should I jump on it sooner rather than later.

I’ve tried testing him at home but all the tests seem to be identifying numbers in circles which isn’t really something he could do accurately anyway.

Have you taken him for an eye test yet?

It’s worth doing pre-school anyway.

One of my DS’s friends discovered he was colour blind when doing a science experiment at school aged 9yo. His Mum was a bit embarrassed not to have noticed sooner but it didn’t seem to have got in the way of his learning.

My son is colour blind red green. We first noticed it when he drew a picture and the grass was orange and he didn't realise. I only got him properly tested a couple of years ago (he is 12). He has managed to live with it and to be honest doesn't know any different. There is no treatment anyway. My father is the same and he wanted to join the RAF and be a pilot but couldn't because of it. Am assuming that will be the same for my son, a few careers off limits perhaps but other than that...

I am red and green colour blind as are my 2 brothers. It doesnt impact on my life one bit( i never wanted to be a pilot luckily ) so dont stress about it too much. As already said not much you can do anyway. Dont make an issue of it to him obviously and forget it is my advice.

Hi my DP is 37 now and he was diagnosed at 3. They came in to his nursery and done the eye test and they discovered it there. My DS is now 6 and he had the test done at 3 in nursery to check if he had it but he doesn't.

It's worth getting the eye test done if you really think he has it.

My DP is red, green and brown colour blond but he can figure out most colours due to different shades but if you put these 3 colours together he couldn't tell the difference.

It doesn't really impact his life in anyway just limits a few careers e.g. can't be a pilot.

It really won't make any difference to him it's just best to know though.

He had an eye test at 14 months as he was prem and they were worried he had a squint but all was fine.

I might give the GP a call and see what they recommend.

Sadly if he’s colourblind he won’t be able to join the family business as you can’t undertake electrical work if you’re colourblind, obviously three is very young to decide a career for him but it would have been nice to have the option of handing the business over to him (Although he wants to be either a Doctor or a Dog 😂)

1 in 10 males are colour "blind" i.e. mix up red/green and brown to some extent so its a possibility, especially if your father is colour blind himself.

You could take him for an eye test, the book we use to test has a section where small children and follow a coloured line with their finger.

There's no treatment, but as PP have said it rarely affects anyone's life much except to exempt from certain career choice.

Colour vision problems are relatively common in boys, found in about 8%. There are tests available that are suitable for children of this age which have pictures or simple shapes instead of the numbers but these will not always be available at all opticians. Quite young children will be able to trace their finger around the numbers even if they cannot name them. Children with a colour deficiency can often name a lot of colours well but can struggle between certain similar colours for example pink/red, blue/purple or yellow/orange. The other thing that can be difficult for them is telling the difference between very dark colours like navy blue/black/ very dark green. There are some good websites which simulate what it is like to have a colour vision problem

You can't seek help as there is no treatment. One of my boys has it which I have clearly passed down from my father.

My son is 11 now and it has very rarely been as issue at school. Just inform nursery/school when they start. My son was given some coloured pencils labelled with the colours which made him feel very special.

Dd1 seemed to have no sense of colours until she was about 3.6yo. She couldn't even match colours. She could read the names of the colours before she recognised them.
She is definitely not colourblind. Just had no interest in them.
When she learnt the colours though she learnt all the basic plus extra ones like turquoise and beige in a week.
Dd2, who knew pink at 18 months, learnt them a bit at a time so took ages learning each colour.

My son is red/green colourblind, despite the name, it affects more than red and green.

Any colour that is made with red or green will also be affected. I first thought my son might have a problem when he struggled to tell the difference between yellow and orange, as he can’t see the red properly, some shades of orange look like yellow to him. He can’t see anything purple at all, it’s just blue. Dark reds are indistinguishable from brown, as are dark greens. Lighter greens will be yellowish green.

If he knows his numbers you could use then Boots Zookeeper Zoe app to check, there’s a colourblindness check in the app www.boots.com/opticians-advice/opticians-advice-zookeeper-zoe Obviously go to an optician to be sure, they have a special sight test suitable for younger children.