Colorblindness?

[lavender's green]

How soon can color blindness be diagnosed and how do we go about it? My son is 22 months and pretty good with colors, except he always thinks purple is either pink or blue, depending on the shade. The in-laws sent him a few Easter gifts including a lime green shirt, and this is the first time he's worn it, seen it, or we've talked about it. He just very confidently told us it was red when we asked what color it was. He doesn't mess up with colors except for new things that are green or red or purple. And I just remembered yesterday he found a rubix cube and he was naming all the colors he could see, but couldn't identify the red squares, even when I asked him to point out the red ones.

 

Now I'm wondering if he only correctly identifies green, red, and purple when they're familiar objects and/or he can discriminate between them by the shading.

 

My mom's brother is red-green colorblind, so from my understanding of x-link traits my grandma was a carrier and my mom and I are potentially carriers.

 

The more I type, the more it sounds like he's colorblind. How do we go about testing? How do I help him navigate colors as he grows up? Does anyone have good resources?

[mlbuchina]

I don't know how young they can be tested, but I think your pediatrician may be the first place to start. My dad is red-green color blind, too. All greens and reds look brown to black to him, depending on their shade and saturation.

 

In the meantime, I found this you could maybe use: http://freepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hellmers/test/

 

HTH!

[Dory]

My father in law and two of my dh's uncles are color blind. Most times we all tend to forget that he is, but every once in awhile in our forgetfulness we'll ask him to do something that he really can't do. a couple summers ago my MIL asked him to paint the garage floor grey. She came back to a purple floor.

He has no issues driving because the traffic lights are always in the same order. He has learned to ask peoples opinions. Even if he's looking at clothes by himself in the store, he'll turn to the person nearest him and ask them if things go together or if they are the same color. It works well. He has never gone anywhere looking not put together. He doesn't even expect his wife to keep his clothes matching. Once he knows what color he bought he marks it on the collar or the tag in indelible ink.

[lavender's green]

My father in law and two of my dh's uncles are color blind. Most times we all tend to forget that he is, but every once in awhile in our forgetfulness we'll ask him to do something that he really can't do. a couple summers ago my MIL asked him to paint the garage floor grey. She came back to a purple floor.

He has no issues driving because the traffic lights are always in the same order. He has learned to ask peoples opinions. Even if he's looking at clothes by himself in the store, he'll turn to the person nearest him and ask them if things go together or if they are the same color. It works well. He has never gone anywhere looking not put together. He doesn't even expect his wife to keep his clothes matching. Once he knows what color he bought he marks it on the collar or the tag in indelible ink.

 

 

:lol:

[Amber in SJ]

My Dh is red-green deficient (the most common color blindness.) For him it means things that he knows are red (stop signs, Santa's suit, etc) look red and things that he knows are green (spring leaves, grass, etc.) look green. The problem occurs when his brain has to identify a color when it could be anything (clothes, cars, paint, etc.) then he needs someone to identify the color. It isn't just red & green he mixes up. He needs help with all shades of brown, purples and pinks as well. My Someone has to help him whenever he does something electrical, or when he buys clothes. His entire childhood he thought peanut butter was green. As an adult he was teaching the youth at church to surf and he went out and bought himself a wetsuit that was hot pink.

 

Dh's mom is the carrier of the gene and all three of her sons have some degree of color blindness. All three of our dds are carriers so their sons will have a 50/50 chance of being colorblind.

 

It really isn't that big of a deal. Most of the tests involved those circles with the dots in them, so your child being tested will need to be able to identify numbers before you can test him.

 

Amber in SJ

[Julie Smith]

I started a similar thread when my Youngest was 2 1/2. He just didn't seem to get any colors. I mean ANY. Then he eventually got colors except red, green. We could work on, really work on it and he wouldn't get it.

 

But eventually I think at age 4? he finally got it. He wasn't colorblind.

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/13001-i-think-my-son-might-be-colorblind/page__hl__+blind?do=findComment&comment=102887

[LucyStoner]

He could be color blind or he could just be 22 months old. My son commonly mixed up pink, purple and blue until he was 4. They are mixed colors and the shades can be confusing. I knew that there was not much of a way he could be color blind because there is not a single colorblind person on my side of the family. My husband's side has some, but it's carried through the mother and I am not a carrier.

 

Thinking green is red is possibly a sign of color blindness though. No harm in getting him tested, though your ped may say wait.

[jenn-]

I say wait it out still. He is very young and may just be confusing his colors. I have one that was diagnosed as colorblind when he was right around 5. At first the dr. was just brushing it off as not knowing his numbers well enough to identify them, but then I mentioned my dad has the exact same colorblindness issues. His is fairly minor and does not bother him too much day in and day out. Just don't ask him to match dark blue socks and black socks.

[jenn-]

I don't know how young they can be tested, but I think your pediatrician may be the first place to start. My dad is red-green color blind, too. All greens and reds look brown to black to him, depending on their shade and saturation.

 

In the meantime, I found this you could maybe use: http://freepages.roo...~hellmers/test/

 

HTH!

 

 

This was very accurate for my kids. The one that is colorblind matched perfectly with the descriptions underneath.

[Crimson Wife]

Pretty much all the males in my family have some type of colorblindness and I have a very mild case of it as well. I didn't realize it until I was a teen because it's so subtle. There are a few shades that I cannot distinguish between but as I'm not a fashion designer nor an interior designer it rarely causes an issue. DH is colorblind as well so our girls have to be at least slightly affected. Oldest DD has passed all the tests at the ophthalmologist (but I always passed those as well). Youngest DD did not cooperate enough the last time she saw the ophthalmologist to be tested but she mixes up green and brown like DS does so I think she probably has that type.

[Vida Winter]

Dd was 18 before we realized she was colorblind. :blushing: (She compensates very well).

[fairfarmhand]

Both my brothers are color blind, severely. They both learned to read color names on crayons very early, but before their Kindergarten teachers figured out they were colorblind, those worksheet that are "circle all the red objects" there were some frustrations.

 

They can't really play games like Uno very well. My brother tried to play a game called Dutch Blitz with my girls last week and that was a bust. All of them were laughing by the time it was over though.

 

My brother sticks to white shirt khaki or black pants whatever colored tie to simplify his life. He is not married.

[Luanne]

My father in law and two of my dh's uncles are color blind. Most times we all tend to forget that he is, but every once in awhile in our forgetfulness we'll ask him to do something that he really can't do. a couple summers ago my MIL asked him to paint the garage floor grey. She came back to a purple floor.

He has no issues driving because the traffic lights are always in the same order. He has learned to ask peoples opinions. Even if he's looking at clothes by himself in the store, he'll turn to the person nearest him and ask them if things go together or if they are the same color. It works well. He has never gone anywhere looking not put together. He doesn't even expect his wife to keep his clothes matching. Once he knows what color he bought he marks it on the collar or the tag in indelible ink.

 

 

This sounds a lot like my daughter's father. He just wears jeans and solid color shirts all the time though to make sure he doesn't clash with himself.

[Arcadia]

In the meantime, I found this you could maybe use: http://freepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hellmers/test/

The animals color blind tests are what the paediatrician use when my boys were younger. My younger boy used to say his colors inconsistently when he was under four and got hubby worried. I can't tell vermillion from red but that only affects electronics resistors and not daily life.

[bolt.]

Calling things by the right color names (or not) is not enough to be thinking about color blindness -- that's a cognitive ability based on his ability to engage in abstract thought and his ability to memorize and categorize things. There are lots of skills involved other than being able to visually tell the difference between colors.

 

That color dot test with the animals is an excellent tool. Be sure to follow the instructions about "no prompting." Just ask "if" he sees "any" animals and let him talk. No matter what he says, say, "Good job!" and leave him feeling good. Then go deal with what you have learned.

[quark]

I waited it out till recently just because there wasn't a huge reason to test. I started suspecting it since DS was about 4. He could do a lot of things early but kept saying green things were reddish or the other way around and sometimes mixing up browns and oranges as well. He also compensates well so it wasn't always obvious and I kept having doubts whether or not to test. Lately, he started playing the game SET and it became pretty obvious. His friends kept saying things like "what are you, colorblind or something?" so we went to get it checked and he is on the moderate red-green colorblind spectrum. He is SO happy to know he is in that 8-10% of the population who are red-green colorblind. Always wants to be different this kid. :)

 

ETA: Apart from SET, I also noticed he kept asking me what colors his thinking putties turned to after he squeezed them...these are those fidget toy putties that change color when in contact with heat/ cold...that was another indication.

[lavender's green]

Thanks for the help, everyone! He's probably just not entirely sure of his colors yet, but I'll keep an eye on it.

 

I showed him the animal picture and he tried to kiss it like he does for all animals, but then he said something about giraffes, so I'm not sure if he actually saw animals or just thought that the dots looked like giraffe markings. He lost interest in the picture right away, so I'm not sure what to think. (Not that I'm worried - we'll know one way or another in a few years, and it's no biggie)

[jenn-]

Thanks for the help, everyone! He's probably just not entirely sure of his colors yet, but I'll keep an eye on it.

 

I showed him the animal picture and he tried to kiss it like he does for all animals, but then he said something about giraffes, so I'm not sure if he actually saw animals or just thought that the dots looked like giraffe markings. He lost interest in the picture right away, so I'm not sure what to think. (Not that I'm worried - we'll know one way or another in a few years, and it's no biggie)

 

 

My youngest insisted he saw a giraffe as well. He is not my colorblind one.

[duckabell]

My father-in-law is colorblind and I have several nephews (my husband's sisters' sons) who are color blind as well. My mother-in-law doesn't let my father-in-law go berry picking because he has a hard time distinguishing ripe berries from non-ripe berries by color. We invited some friends over to play Qwirkle once and we didn't realize that one of them was colorblind. He still won the game, but it was somewhat awkward.