I think my son might be colorblind

[Julie Smith]

My son is 2 1/2, and I think he might be color blind. He just doesn't seem to even 'get' colors. I just find it very strange since he knows so many things; foods, names of all the types of tools, speaks in complete sentences. Yet he can't tell the difference between the colors. He will never refer to things by color. He will say, "I want the big hammer", or "the slotted screw driver". He will never say, "I want the red hammer", or "the blue screw driver".

Is there anything I should do? Can he be color blind tested at this age? Do you have any books to recommend. Ones to read with him and my slightly older son. (Who gets frustrated when playing games cause ds will always take his red ball when his is green...)

If he is color blind I just want to lessen the frustration he will face.

[Mariann]

it was noticed at an early vision check during a well visit, and confirmed about a year later. Since he was the first male born in our family in 42 years, it is not surprising that we were all caught off guard about it.
It is not an issue -- Michael knows he is color blind -- it has helped enormously for us to notice which colors he substitutes for, what he sees instead of, say, green, and to make his teachers (now that he is in school) aware of it.
When he was in K last year, and I was teaching at the same school, his teacher knew it but the school principal did not. It was a VERY VERY small school, and the principal and Michael were having a talk about something with color. The principal finally gave up, and mentioned to me later that Michael appeared to be having difficulty with his colors -- the K teacher and I were standing there and we burst into laughter. I explained what the difficulty had been and the secretary was hysterical laughing as well, having witnessed the entire thing with Michael holding his cool and the Principal totally stumped. Michael had offered that he is color-blind, but the Principal was not accepting that.
It has not been an issue - I am sure, however, that there are varying degrees and certainly a professional consult should be considered.
Hope this helps. Mariann

[Kay in Cal]

It may be (have you examined your family history for colorblindness?).

We do have a family history of colorblindness (my FIL is colorblind) and we were concerned when our ds was about the same age. Even when he finally started to know some color names, he would mix them up... panic!

But, as it turned out, by the time he was 3 1/2 he could identify colors easily and correctly. So give it time... it may be, or it may not, but it's really hard to tell with a 2 year old. :)

[kaylk in tx]

i think the most common is red/green... (there are others). but if he doesn't know any of the colors, i wouldn't worry about it. he will probably know them in a few months. (btw, i think the standard that doctors care about is if they can correctly identify 3 colors when they're 3)

[BMC]

He doesn't see green the same way as we do (it is shades of brown for him). Green blends are tricky because of it.

We let him choose his color game piece first. ;)

About all he says about it is that once he learned how to read (the color names on the crayon) the teachers left him alone. He knew he was "color blind" before his parents or teachers believed him. When he asks for help identifying colors in stores before he purchases, he says that people are not very friendly. He needs help with buying ties especially. He also has some trouble with red - so red blends like purple are a problem.

Traffic signals are not a problem as the red and green are always in the same place (vertically or horizontally) but his vision did prevent him from pursuing some careers - kinda hard to drive a ship or plane in the military and doctors identify things by color as do electricians and electronics repairman. Just to name the most common.

[NicksMama-Zack's Mama Too]

They could count and do simple math way before they "got" colors.

Seems to be the case for many of my friend's toddlers also.

hth
k

[Old Dominion Heather]

My ds 5 is red/green colorblind. He has adapted. He learned to read the names of his crayons, for example. We don't make too much of a deal over it since his older brother is actually visually impaired.

[PrairieAir]

I don't have any advice for you, just something that may be encouraging. My brother is color blind and he is an artist. He comes up with some of the most amazing color combinations that other people might not think to use. I think sometimes that is because of his color blindness. It really makes his artwork stand out in a good way. If you ask him what his favorite color is, he'll say grey:)

[WendyK]

I thought the same thing about my son (he will be 3 in June). He seemed to pick up on everything but colors. But now he seems to be getting his colors finally. So I wonder if "colors" have just not clicked yet.

[MotherMayI]

Here is a link to one. http://www.colorvisiontesting.com/ I was concerned about my ds- so I used one of these. He passed. I joked that I was sure that he would know his colors by the time he graduated high school. He didn't learn them until he was 4.

[allearia]

I thought my son (now 3) was for a while. He knew his letters and numbers but not many colors and confused red and green.

However, now he can tell the difference so I am pretty sure he is not. He just took a while to catch on.

[Julie Smith]

It's just nice to hear stories about kids who can't tell colors, eventually getting it. My dh isn't color blind. My parents aren't. My mom isn't sure about her Dad.

So I hope it's nothing. I'll let you know in a year or two when he is old enough for testing. ;)

[LadyAberlin]

My grandfather was red green color blind and my mother has trouble with blues and purples. My sister says that I have trouble with blues and purples too. My ds4 cannot for the life of him remember the difference between brown and black. I get so frustrated. I don't know if that is a sign of a problem or what. He doesn't seem to have a problem with any other colors.

[RoughCollie]

He's pretty young, so it may be that colors of objects aren't important to him yet.

My boys learned their colors using cars. They were thrilled with our neighbors car, so I always called it the "blue car". Other cars we saw a lot, including our own, had color names too. It didn't take long before the boys figured out that blue and red, for example, described color.

I also had picture books that were about colors -- each book about a different color. Of course, we started with blue. Then I'd show the boys other things that were blue -- at first using only the particular blue of that car. I worked up to comparing colors: See how this is red, and this is blue, just like the neighbor's car?



My son is 2 1/2, and I think he might be color blind. He just doesn't seem to even 'get' colors.