I'm pretty certain my 4 year old is colour blind

[Meid]

He knows all his colours, without hesitation, except red and green.

He'll point to red and say its red. And point to green and also say its red.

Occassionally he'll get green right, so I think he does see certain shades of green.

What should I do? Would it be prudent to get diagnosis?

Doctors or optician? Can an optician test for colour blindness in children?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

meid x

take his to an opticians and theyll do the ishihara colour test - its easy and at 4 he should be able to do it. theyll tell you if he is or not. at 4 he should be having an eye test anyway - they are old enough by then and the optom will use a chart with pictures on.

good luck

Has he done a test where he tries to find a number embedded in lots of coloured dots?

That's what the opticians use, and I'm sure you could do the same at home.

yep thats the ishihara test mmeblueberry. but you cant do it at home - just take him for an eye test - its free for under 16's and theyll tell you for definite. whats the point in guessing?

Thanks.

I looked at those tests in a book I have. He doesn't recognise all numbers anyway. Is there a children's version?

And I'll make the optician's appointment. I think we are all due for an eye test so maybe we'll have a family outing!

Linky

I agree that it is pretty easy to make an appt to go to the opticians. Just do it!

Thank you. And thanks for the link!

That is a fascinating link. My dad was colour blind and I have just discovered that DS1 (who I has been tested as colour blind) is not as colourblind as DS2 who could not see any of the numbers. DS3 could see all of them and DH whilst he could see the numbers in the top set could see a 2 not a 5 in the bottom one which seems to indicate a degree of red green colourblindness on his part (which he is angrily denying!!).

I'm not colourblind at all

bh,

colourblindness is usually a male thing.

We've had to resolve to call it colour differentiation as DH will not accept that he might be partially colour blind!!

I'm pretty sure my nearly-three-year-old is red-green colourblind as well. We saw an optician a few months back (routine check because of a family history of lazy eye) but he said he was too young to test. He's the same as your son, Meid - knows all his colours spot-on except for red and green, and has occasionally described red and green objects as 'grey'.

both my ds' also took an age to learn red and green and didn't seem able to tell the difference. many tests later, turns out they are not colour blind, just daft as brushes

By the way, in the bottom test on that link I could see a 2 and not a 5.

I've never considered myself to have the slightest bit of colourblindness though.

Weird!

We had the same concern re DD she is nearly 4. Could say all the colours except red and green. We were really concerned, spoke to teachers at nursery and debated what to do and then one day when one of the teachers was testing her she got them right and seems to be OK. I think it can take a while for children to just identify all the colours some sooner than others. I would wait until your DS starts school and if it's still a problem then seek advice.