Colour blindness

[ThePants999]

DS is two and a half, and like every kid there are ways in which he's behind his peers and ways in which he's ahead. One way in which he's ahead is colour identification. Colours were some of his first words, and for months he's been able to confidently match colours to names. Both in terms of recognition ("which car is blue?") and identification ("what colour is that?") - he has very high accuracy with most basic colours.

Except red and green. Give him something red and ask what colour it is, he'll say "red" 50% of the time and "green" 50% of the time. Give him something green, same thing. He's always identifies it as a red/green thing, as opposed to any other colour, but seems to be totally incapable of distinguishing between the two. Obviously I can't see through his eyes, but it really feels like he's perceiving them as distinct from everything else, but the same as each other.

People say that this is far too early to try to detect colour blindness, and I get that for most kids that would be true - but for an issue this specific (especially given something like 6% of males have some degree of red-green colour blindness), in a child that's otherwise ahead of their age in this area, is it [i]really[/i]?

My son is 5 and I thought from around 2.5 that he was colour blind. He was very similar to what you describe. Although he struggles with browns reds and greens mainly. I mentioned it to nursery when he started there but they say it's not something they look out for anymore.

Long story short he is colour blind he was diagnosed at 4 at the opticians. My dad is also colour blind it does run in families and like you say is much more common in boys.

I would have a word with your local high street optician. They may be able to offer a basic colour blindness test, or they may not (especially if the test requires number or letter recognition). Failing that, your GP might offer a referral to a hospital opthalmologist.

Is your father colour blind. I believe it is passed from father (ie grandfather) via female daughter to male grandchild.

Both of mine are colourblind and I noticed at around age 3

My DD realIsed she was blue green colour blind at 17 🤦🏼‍♀️

My son was about that age when we knew. Had a load of crayola crayons and picked out ones that were ‘the same’ and they were often red/ green or orange / green pairs. We never officially had it diagnosed as my dad is the same and we just knew (generally speaking women carry the gene but aren’t colour blind themselves so it skips a generation) . At some point at primary school he did a proper test with those numbers on coloured circles.

There is a test on the colour vision chart for young children, so yes, it's worth getting an eye exam.

@RandomMess - that's really unusual..blue/green colour deficiencies can sometimes be a sign of a eye problem, has your daughter had it checked out?

Colour blindness is X chromosome linked.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness
Do you have colour blind uncles or brothers?

DS2 is colour blind. We noticed when he was about two and couldn't identify his orange ball in grass. We had his eyes tested as soon as he was able to sit through the test. In his case it's not as simple as red / green. He struggles to see a difference between blue / brown / purple shades, seeing them all as a kind of sludge (as far as we can and he can tell).
His colour vision has improved with age to a degree. We helped him as a child by doing little tricks like buying coloured pencils and crayons that have the colour word on them or on their label, which helped him do colouring homework for example. School was hopeless- it's a hidden disability but none of his teachers took it seriously. He seemed to get a LOT of homework that involved colouring unnecessarily and wasn't allowed to say do hatching or shading instead.
In a nutshell it's worth getting his eyes tested to rule it in or out, especially as it could just be something he'll catch up with in time.

DS was diagnosed at 4 at his first eye test, just before he started school but I was fairly sure from an earlier age. Similar to your son, his colour recognition in general was really good, except for certain shades of red and green. I knew that he had a 50% chance of being colour blind though, so I was looking out for it I suppose.

I would say it can probably be detected, but the child has to be able to say what it is they can see - DS's test was done with the numbers. Personally, guessing your DS may be starting pre-school in September, I'd wait till towards the end of the summer holidays before deciding whether to try and get him an eye test.

@underneaththeash I'm sure she has since she realised but I'll double check with her.

Her light bulb moment was very amusing, lots of "Oh that's why I kept doing x" and explains some interest clothing combinations over the years!

Yes very unusual and she does have it documented for exams etc.

I am a colourblind female in her 50s it was picked up in secondary school. You learn to cover. Colour is a perception so when I see green others see blue so you learn to hedge your bets and say what you think it should be rather than what you think it is! Children aren’t checked until year 6 and they only check boys unless you push. I rang our school nurse and had mine checked in her 2 when they were in school doing the height and weight reviews. Your son is probably too young I was convinced one of my daughters was colour blind until the age of 4. There are some online tests you can do when he is a little bit older. We have great fun with everyone laughing at me when I see a tea pot and it is the number 26!!