Colourblindness in school

[Orange32]

DS, nearly 8, was confirmed as colour blind couple of days ago. i have suspected as much for quite some time now. Does any one have any experience of this in terms of schooling etc, does this have any impact on them besides when colouring etc

Thanks

DSS is colourblind. Doesn't seem to be much of a problem really - his primary school were aware, but secondary I don't think have been told - he's old enough to tell the teachers himself if needs be. There doesn't seem to be much they need to do to allow for it - I'm not aware of any tests or anything that have ever required him to tell colours apart. He just embarrasses himself ocassionally by describing something as the wrong colour (he can't tell dark blue, purple or dark red apart).

It probably won't cause him problems at the moment, but there are areas that could be a concern in future see the following link Colour Blind awareness.
As a former Science teacher, I am aware that particularly in my main subject Chemistry there are marks awarded for colour changes in reactions that would cause a problem to some students with colour blindness. So teachers do need to be made aware - teenagers may be reluctant to ask for help in front of others in their class.
I am also aware of some students who have had difficulty telling the difference between red and green traffic lights, for example, with obvious implications for road safety so this type of real life issue needs to be addressed as well.

As 'crazymum' said - it could have an implication when studying chemistry.
Another point to bear in mind is to look up which professions could be ruled out by being colour-blind. My brother always talked about wanting to be a pilot. My mother suspected that he could be colour-blind and got him checked when he was about 9 or 10. The 'bad' news meant that he had to adjust his ambitions but they found out soon enough to manage this.

Both my my Dss are completely colourblind. School needs to know. They have coloured pencils with the names of the colours written on them and they are given assistance when other subjects involve them identifying the answer to something by reference to a colour, for example this week DS2 had homework which involved him colouring in blue the sums which added to 20 and colouring green those which added to 15

Tell the school, they should be familiar with the adjustments required but optician should give you an information booklet to pass on to them (mine did anyway).

My sons colorblindness has had no impact whatsoever that I have noticed, but he is only 6.

I'm coloured blind - and I can't remember there being any problem at school

• and as for the traffic lights - it doesn't matter if you can tell the difference between red and green, you can still tell if the top or bottom light is operating.

It could also have implications on PE/sports.
Definitely mention it to the school. We use a spelling strategy where vowels are coloured red, and consonants blue etc so this would be an issue for a colourblind child.
Once the school knows it is there job to work with it and overcome any difficulties.

as well as chemistry reactions, geography maps with colour coded keys eg relief maps, rainfall etc - the colour gradations are very small and my colour blind son wouldnt be able to tell the difference between any of them.

But in exams, the colour blind child who normally has the colours pointed out to them in the classroom, is entitled to have a "colour reader" in the exam, doesnt eliminate the problem, but does help.

plus the extent of the difficulties will depend on the degree of colour blindness and also the type (ie which colours look similar).

Also (random fact!!) if he has any daughters, they will all carry the colour blindness gene

I think what is important is what sort of coloured blind he is. I think quite a few posters here are assuming that your son has total colour-blindness or has the well known red-green partial colour blindness. Hopefully the professional your son saw helped you understand where on the spectrum your son's blindness lies.

Thanks all, he is red/green and blue/yellow colourblind. This is in addition to other sight problems, extreme myopia, astigmatism, lazy eye, so this is just one more to add in with the rest.

i have made the school aware of this but this should not be a major issue with exception of art