Color Blind Kiddies

[AnaKhouri]

I'm wondering if Khan (22 months) might have some level of color blindness. He only knows one color, black (and he knows 25 alphabet letters and 8 numbers) and every time he sees green he calls it blue. He likes sidewalk chalk so I tell him the colors pretty often, he just hasn't caught on to them like has does other things (he's a pretty quick study, this kid).

Is there any way to tell until he starts to talk more?

[Kogarashi]

Not sure how to test until he's talking more, but otherwise his behavior sounds like standard two-year-old behavior. My youngest is 25 months at the moment and will still frequently call everything "blue" or "red," sometimes "green," no matter what the color actually is. Yet at other times, she can get it right.

At the very least, Khan should have a pediatrics appointment coming up soon, no? I wouldn't worry about it until you get a chance to ask your pediatrician.

[42_42_42]

Sounds normal to me. Depending on what her favorite color is that day, our friends' 2 yo daughter says everything is blue or orange. Every one of my nephews went through a phase at around that age where everything was either red or blue. By time they were 3-ish, they could identify all the "basic" colors (red, yellow, blue, orange, purple, green, pink, brown, black, and white).

[kaherbert]

Sounds normal to me also. Question is his maternal grandfather color blind? If not the chances are pretty low, because color Blindest is a sex linked trait. If it does run in your family you still need to wait till a child is 3 or 4. Color blindness is not going to limit your child and there is no way to correct it.

My Uncle is color blind, so all three of my female cousins are carriers. They had 3 boys (1 each). Two of the boys are color blind, one is not. There was a granddaughter who had a 50/50 chance of being a carrier. Her oldest is not color blind, the younger one is just now getting old enough to test, but isn't showing any signs.

To be tested the child has to be able to communicate. They are shown these circles made of colored dots. If they are color blind they see one shape, if they have normal vision they see another shape.

My 2 cousins who are color blind one is an engineer, the other is a graphic designer. They both make good livings and being color blind pretty much was only an issue in preschool and early elementary. There is a tenancy in those grades to do activities that involve complementary colors. Everyone get out your red and green crayons. Circle the pictures that start with the K sound with your red crayon and the things that start with a D sound with your green crayon. (Or blue and orange or Yellow and purple).

The lower grade teacher on my campus started changing the instructions after I identified 2 kids as being color blind. It was on my radar because of my cousins. My cousins' Moms figured it out in Preschool - because the boys were "refusing" to put toys on the correct shelves. They were mixing up the red dot toys and the green dot toys. After 1st grade, the only time being colored blind effected their lives was during some optical illusion experiments in science class. They just told their teacher they were red/green color blind.

[Seshat]

If Khan can understand grouping or sorting things (eg, grouping things by shape, grouping things by letter, or by number) try asking him to group things by colour.

If he groups red and green stuff together, that's a pretty strong indication that he's red/green colour blind. (There are other, rarer colour-blindness types, so any unusual colour-grouping probably indicates those other colour-blindnesses.)

Demonstrate this 'game' to his pediatrician, and the doctor can do the formal tests.


(It just occurred to me that lego/duplo would probably be a great toy to use for this colour-sorting test. Or other sorts of coloured play blocks.)

[Jester]

If he groups red and green stuff together, that's a pretty strong indication that he's red/green colour blind. (There are other, rarer colour-blindness types, so any unusual colour-grouping probably indicates those other colour-blindnesses.)

I think you may be mistaken. I am have no training in optometry or opthamology, but I feel I can speak on this for a very simple reason: I suffer from slight red-green colorblindness. Not full on, mind you, but what they call "color deficient."

I can see reds and greens. I can also tell the difference between them. What I have trouble with is differentiating various shades within each of the two colors. For instance, similar shades of red will look the same to me, as will (to a lesser degree for me) similar shades of green. Many dark shades of pink appear red to me; many lighter shades appear as beige. When people blush, I know it only by their facial expression, as I have never seen someone turn a different color when they blush. I know intellectually they do, but it is not something I can see visibly. Also, unless someone is totally lobsterized, or I see their tan lines, I really don't ever see sunburns.

But confusing reds with greens, or grouping them together? Never.

Now, I could be wrong, and perhaps it is different for people with stronger colorblindess than myself, but I don't think so.

My opinion is that it is too early to tell imperically with this child, and more importantly, it is not such a serious condition that one needs to know this early. Even people who are fully colorblind rarely suffer more than some fashion faux pas. And full colorblindness is very rare. Obviously no parent wants anything wrong with their child, but relax, wait for Khan to grow up a bit more, and then see what happens. And if he is....it is about one of the mildest disabilities one can have. Frankly, I don't consider it a disability myself, though it often is an amusing conversation piece with my friends and myself.

[trailerparkmedic]

My ex was red/green color blind. The only time it ever affected him in his adult life was when he joined the Army. He wanted to be an infantry guy and they wouldn't let him. Being Khan's mom, you might see that restriction as an advantage.

[AnaKhouri]

Thanks everyone! I am not particularly concerned; as disabilities go, color blindness is the most minor of the minor, you know? I was just curious because he seems to pick up everything else so quickly, but he still doesn't really get colors.

[Mikkel]

I think I was tested with those coloured dot charts when I began school.
I remember one with a sail boat and one with a car.

[Kogarashi]

To be tested the child has to be able to communicate. They are shown these circles made of colored dots. If they are color blind they see one shape, if they have normal vision they see another shape.

Haha, I remember those tests. I think we got them in kindergarten, first, and second grades. Circles made up of colored dots, where the bulk of the circle would be, say, red, but then there'd be a number 2 in it made of green dots, and we had to identify the number. If we couldn't see it, we were to say so. I never understood as a kid what that was for, but it makes sense that it would be a colorblindness test.

Youngest actually did this to me just today. I asked her to pick up all the red Duplos, so she was picking up the reds going, "This is kind of red! This is kind of red!" Then she picked up a yellow one and said, "This is kind of red!" "No, Youngest, that's yellow." "This is kind of yellow!" Suddenly every Duplo was yellow.

[42_42_42]

Jester, my hubby has a milder form of what you describe. Only, he has a problem with shades of color in all color families. He can tell red and pink apart, but I think it's more because red to him is darker and pink is brighter or something. Most of his work clothes are a light tan khaki pant and a light blue oxford shirt because he knows they will coordinate. He has a few shirts and pants in other colors and I have to remind him never to wear tan with brown or green with green because to him they are the same shade, but they aren't really and it looks really weird.

Interesting linguistics fact, not all languages have the same number of color words. Some don't even have the basic "ten" (i.e. ROY G BIV + black, white, brown), but all have at least 2:

in a culture with only two terms, the two terms would mean roughly 'dark' (covering black, dark colors and cold colors such as blue) and 'bright' (covering white, light colors and warm colors such as red). All languages with three colors terms would add red to this distinction. Thus, the three most basic colors are black, white, and red. Additional color terms are added in a fixed order as a language evolves: first one of green or yellow; then the other of green or yellow; then blue. All languages distinguishing six colors contain terms for black, white, red, green, yellow, and blue. These colors roughly correspond to the sensitivities of the retinal ganglion cells, leading Berlin and Kay to argue that color naming is not merely a cultural phenomenon, but is one that is also constrained by biology—that is, language is shaped by perception.

As languages develop, they next adopt a term for brown; then terms for orange, pink, purple and/or gray, in any order.[3] Finally, a basic term for light blue appears.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_term

This makes me wonder if there is any corrolation with eyesight and cognitive development in children.

[Jester]

I think I was tested with those coloured dot charts when I began school.

I know we all were when I was a kid. And, as per my earlier commentary on my particular condition, there were always a few of those charts that were just a bunch of colored dots, with nothing really standing out. Where you, for example, saw a number two, I did not.

This ended up being fun later in life when, a few years ago, as an adult, I was at the eye doctor's to get contacts and/or glasses (I can't remember which, as I wear both). For some reason, they decided to give me the whole colorblind test, which I had not had since school. I decided to mess with the nurses. I identified those I could, but when they got to one that I could not see, I asked them why they were messing with me by holding up a chart with no number/letter on it. When they expressed concern that I might be slightly color blind, I continued to pull their leg by acting shocked. "Really? Color blind? Me? Are you SURE?"

Yeah, I'm a rat bastard. What's your point?


42, I can tell red from pink, it's just certain shades that throw me, most of them in the pink family, especially the lighter pinks. Great example: years ago when I worked at the brewpub, part of our uniform was a white oxford button-down shirt. Well, one day I was doing laundry, and threw the shirt in with my black apron and pants. What I did not know was that a red pen had exploded in my apron, and there was red ink in the wash. Which I did not see when I pulled the shirt from the laundry, nor did I notice anything amiss at all as I went into work the next day with said shirt on. One guy asked me what was up with the pink shirt. I told him I had no idea what he was talking about. Then several people commented on it, including management. I still did not quite believe them, as I had worn that shirt before to work without incident, but I still did not know about the ink. Finally my best friend Neets, who worked with me, looked me in the eye and said, "Jester, the shirt's pink. You know I wouldn't lie to you." At which point I knew this was not some joke they were playing on me. Since management would not allow me to work in the now-pink shirt, I went off to a clothing store to buy a new one. When I got back and was changing from the pink-inked shirt to the white one, the same guy who had first pointed it out to me asked, "NOW do you see the difference?" To which I replied, "No, jackass, my eyes haven't changed. I can't see certain shades. They still look the same to me."

We won't even talk about the rug I picked up for my dorm room from a girl that was throwing it out. Looked like a lovely beige rug to me. Turns out it was very pink.

[Evil Queen]

Have him look at some of these numbers and have him tell you what ones he sees. There's a chance he's just mixing up colours.

[LillFilly]

My niece would always tell my mom that she had 'blue chicken' for lunch all through grade school. We never did figure out what it was supposed to mean!

[DesignFox]

hello everybody! long time no see. Since my current sweetheart is completely colorblind, thought I'd pop in a note. He can't see any color. If he can, he's thrilled because it must be a good strong color if he can see it.

Other than the fact that he can't watch 3-D movies, has trouble with certain puzzle type video games and occasionally needs someone to tell him what color a shirt or pair of pants is, he doesn't have any problems with day to day life. Most of the time he can kind-of tell what color something is supposed to be based on the shade of gray it is.

Took me a few months of being around him to teach myself not to describe things by color, but by shape, texture or wording instead.

The worst he ever suffered was his family messing with him. You know those color blind test circle things? Two t-shirt companies make shirts using those- one that says "I <3 color", and one that says "fuck the colorblind." Do I need to spell out what his family members did to him with those?

Couldn't resist saying hello and sharing. Best of luck with Khan! Sounds like it's too early to tell for him. I hope he isn't colorblind, but if he is, I am sure everything will turn out alright for him, anyway.