Colourblindness

[Ibouncetothebeat]

I think my toddler may be colour blind. DC is nearly 3 years old. Not exceptionally bright, but meeting all milestones. Can count to 20 consistently, recognises and names animals. But can not correctly name his colours. Nursery has been working on this with him. When you tell him something is red, he can identify something else that is red. He also know things like buses are red and the hulk is green. But I have red they can learn to differentiate between the colours. Has anyone got any experience of colour blindness? How is it diagnosed? What did you do? What should I be doing? Has anyone else’s DC not been able to recognise colours but they were just delayed in that area?

He may be colour blind - 1 in 10 children are, he might just be struggling with the perception of colour and the understanding behind which spectrum certain colours fall into - which some children are at three.

You can take him for an eye test, most practices have a colour vision chart which has a section for younger children who don't yet know their number written down - it's free too. Call and check first though. - it's called an Ishihara Test and it's the original book you need.

He may not be colourblind. My DD used to mix up red and green all the time when she was 2-3. I was worried she was colourblind. She grew out of it, I think it was a language thing not a vision thing eg she knew she wanted to say a colour so she picked one of the colour words she knew.

So get him tested, it won’t hurt, but it may just be part of the normal learning process.

I thought the same about mine. It’s very prevalent in my family. It turns out the names just took a while for him to learn.
If your child can match things that are red to other things that are red, without mixing in things that are green or black, then that’s a good sign (at least for the type of colour vision deficiency that runs in my family).

My DS is colour blind. I spotted inconsistencies when he was about 3 between his choice of red/brown/orange when colouring or playing certain games. I wanted to know for sur

I wanted to know for sure before he started Reception so took him to the Opticians. It was easily diagnosed and has not held him back at all. He's also left handed. I think his brain is wired differently

I've got it. But it was only becoming an issue when I was around 15/16.

As others have said, he might be mixing up names of the colours?

The optician checked one of mine for me

My DS couldn't do this at three but isn't colour blind.

Boots opticians used to give out a free book for kids that had some colour blindness detection pages in - maybe see if they still do it?

My son can now differentiate between the colours but in reality he cannot see red at all it looks very similar to brown to him. He can see shades of blue green and yellow more vividly. There are different degrees of colour blindness depending on how the rods and cones in the eye have formed. Scientists think Van Gough was colour blind in the same way as my DS
Google it and you can see how his paintings may have been meant to look had he picked the "right" colour from his palate

DS2 is colourblind and also left handed. I suspected he was as a small child but only because I was looking out for it - DH is colourblind, but more pertinently so is my Dad, and I believe it is passed down the female line. I don’t think I would have noticed at all if I wasn’t looking for it, it didn’t cause any problems or really show itself at all. It was confirmed last year when he had an eye test (hes 12 now). It just means there’s no point arguing about colours with him, he sees what he sees!

I just want to correct myself - 1 in 10 boys are. Not girls its 1 in 200.

My 2 sons are red & green colourblind. Not a surprise as my dad was as well and it is inherited through the female line.

They were diagnosed as soon as they were able to do the colour tests at the opticians, although when they were little the optician said it might just be that they didn't recognise the numbers that appear in the tests so they didn't get a firm diagnosis till later on.

They both seem to be able to identify what is pure red or pure green when it's a stand alone colour but struggle seeing those pigments in other colours- so purple looks blue/ grey because they can't seem to see the red in it. Also if there are shades of green or red they can't seem to identify that.

They seem to manage ok though!

And this has just reminded me to remind DS1's school that it needs to be flagged for his GCSEs incase there's colour - like maps - on his exam papers!

One in ten boys are colourblind (it's much more rare in girls). Ds2 is colour blind and I didn't notice, nor did his teachers. It got picked up at an eye test when he was 6.
I'm.not sure you can really tell at 3.

Ishihara tests are used to help diagnose it. I'm unsure though at what age they would be use- likely older than your DS as some ask to distinguish double digit numbers and name them. Worth looking into though.

They have a section for those who can't read numbers - you basically trace a line of dots instead.

My DS is colour blind (to red and green). We only found out when he was about 7 at a routine eye appointment- had no idea he couldn’t see the colours as he sees shades of them and to him they look a bit different to brown.

DS is colourblind and could name colours as a toddler/preschooler so that isn't a reliable indication.

We twigged when he couldn't tell the difference between blue and purple in a colour spotting game we were playing so we used the online "coloured spot" tests. There were some with pictures in rather than numbers.

He was allowed to have someone tell him the colours on graphs/maps/etc during his GCESs so it's worth knowing and telling a secondary school in the future!

Try this colour blind test - this is what my opticians used.

colormax.org/color-blind-test/