Question About Color Blindness in 2 Year Olds- Is It Possible to Tell

Hi J.,
It's to early for colors, I have my son in speech & occupational therapy due to a delay in his development. I was told that colors are learned around 3-5. It is shapes like,circle,triangle and maybe stars that they should be familiar with by 3-4.

Do you care the gene? The gene for color blindness is x-linked while rare for femailes they are the ones who pass the trait to their sons. My granfather was color blind--my mother passed this to my brother who is also red/green color blind and my 3 year old is possibly corolr bling they pediatrician tested him at his 3 year old visit, but it is actually too soon to really tell because of the testing they need to be able to identify numbers inside colored circles. There are varrying degrees of color blindness.

Colorblindness is usually tested by the pediatrician at 4 years of age, I am not sure if they do it before then, or how reliable the results would be. I would call his doctor and see what her policy is.

Also, being colorblind is almost always herediatry, so if you and your husband are not colorblind, there is a good chance that your son is not.

Your son is 2, so really you wouldn't be able to tell yet whether he is having color blind issues or if he is simply not interested in learning colors at this stage. I would just keep up with it while you are doing activities such as coloring, playdough, puzzles, ect. Also, remind him of colors throughout the day, like when you are dressing him say "I'm gonna put this red shirt on you now" ect. He will hopefully catch on and learn from this. Good Luck!

Color blindness is genetic, so if he is colorblind, it will have been from birth. The most common type of colorblindness is "red-green" meaning that the person cannot distinguish those colors from one another.
This is a good website to get you through the basics: http://colorvisiontesting.com/

There's not much you can do just yet, but I would mention it to your pediatrician and it's possible, she/he can do some preliminary colorblindness screening.

*Colorblindness can skip generations as it is a "sex-linked" genetic disorder. The gene is located on the X chromosome and if the gene is defective, a person will be colorblind. The reason why more men are colorblind than women is b/c women would need 2 defective genes are both of their X chromosomes and men would need only one defective gene on their single X chromosome (men are XY). Did I confuse anyone yet?

Me and my husband thought the same thing when our son was 2. His response to our question of "what color is this" was "color". I spoke to the pediatrician and she said that most children can't understand the concept of color until closer to 3. My son is now 2.5yrs old and has just started to get some of the colors.

You can try getting vision tests. The one's with different colored dots. You may be able to load them from the internet and see if your son recognizes the images inside the test. These Pseudoisochromatic tests are really for ages between 3-7 but every child develops differently so you could see. I wouldn't take it as 100% only because of the age.

Other than that, kids concentrate on one thing at a time. They will get hooked on numbers or walking or a number of skills and all the coaxing in the world will not get him to what you are trying to concentrate on.

I really think you have another year before you can really "worry" but see if you can find a test on line that you can print or show the screen to your son and ask him if he sees the "star" or "kitty" or whatever is there. I wouldn't tell him what the objects were but rather ask him to point to the objects in the picture. Then ask him if he knows what they are. If he sees them then there is a good chance he is not color blind. He is just not ready to adventure into colors yet.

Another thought: When asked what car he wants or ball or whatever the object may be, is he able to say, "the red truck?" If he is able to tell you what color toy he wants, then he's not color blind. Ask him as you do this. Next time your at the store offer to buy him a hot wheels car. Do you want Daddy/Mommy to get you the green truck or the red truck. (those being two significant colors that are not destinguishable in color blindness) Then if you are buying a small match box car or hot wheels, ask him to go pick out the truck he just described. For 99 cents, you may have your answer. If he picks up the wrong color then probe a little bit. Do you like the color of that truck? What color is that? Then pick up the color he chose and say, "This one is the red one. Does this (the color he picked up instead) truck look like the same color as this one?) Not fool proof but could give you some insight. Again, I wouldn't take it as 100%. I would be more apt to trust the tests if I could find one.

The other thing you mentioned was that he is very smart. A lot of kids with color blindness will have problems with grouping when they get older due to not being able to see the color. Sometimes parents think it is a learning disability of some kind and it turns out to be color blindness. Which of course is a "disability" to some extent when learning grouping but far less serious than some of the other issues that it could be.

Bottom line: Pull a test up. It may put some of your "fears" to rest but if he "fails" it, I wouldn't bank on that 100% because he is only 2.

Hope this helps.

Hi J.,
It is too early to tell if your son is color blind. First of all don't worry about him learning and knowing colors for another year. And For you to know for sure about color blindness, that probably won't be accurate until he is about 5 or even 6 years old. If your husband has color blindness then chances are your son could have it but you can't do much until he is old enough to participate in a test.
M.

Color-blindness is genetic, a person has it from birth (I should know, my dad's color-blind).

There are simple tests you can do to find out if your boy is color-blind, and not just disinterested in naming colors. I just did a quick google search for "color blind tests" and here's one site that popped up: http://colorvisiontesting.com/online%20test.htm

HTH!

I am not sure why you think that your son is color blind. My daughter had no interest for a long time and if she did answer me when I asked she would always say a different color than it actually was. I would not worry about it. It will come on its own. He probably has other interest that he is developing and it does not mean that he does not know his colors. My daughter has never liked being "taught" anything. She wants to choose what to learn on her own. Once I let go of trying to teach her the alphabet, she quickly learned them.

telax and enjoy whatever his interest are and nurture those. Everything else will come at his own pace.

J., I just read your question. I am a teacher and a mom of a color blind child that I diagnosed at 2. I knew when he grouped all his legos by colors and red and greens were together, etc. Each time I asked him to group things by color, he did it the same way! It's not too early to bring him to an ophthalmologist...They are the only ones who can make the definite diagnosis. By the way, many people are color blind, and don't even know it because they "memorize" colors (names of colors are on crayons) and..once they learn what is "green", "red", etc. it looks like they're not having any difficulty!! So unless you have a formal exam, many kids/people could be undiagnosed! Also, there are several different forms of cb, red/green, blue/purple, both and seeing only black/white/gray and varying degrees of severity. Once he's diagnosed, he may need to have accommodations in the classroom... (whiteboards with red or green marker are a no no for my son and yellow chalk on a green board is a no no. Also, when he learns to write, he may not be able to see the lines on the paper! As far as inheriting the gene, even if your husband is color blind, the only way he would inherit the gene is if you carried it....or if the both of you carried it. He can't pass it on unless you're a carrier, too. Talk to your doctor and then a school professional when the time comes! Good luck!

I just spoke to my pediatrician about this issue because we had the same concern. Turns out that the normal milestone is for children to identify one or two colors by 2 1/2 and only three colors by age 3. I know other kids who can already identify colors, but the doctor said it's nothing to worry about. She also said that kids learn what colors are called and often have a favorite (my son calls many things red) before they learn which color is red. Hope that makes sense and helps!

J.,
Take your son to the opthamologist. They have these tests that can determine if he is color blind or confused. Color blind is when you see only black and white. Color confused is when the same color in different shades is confused to be black. My husband is color confused and my eldest son is color blind.

Back to the test...they have these circles with two or more colored dots and numbers inside them. The doc could have your son trace the numbers if he could see them. The other way, the way I found out, serve them mixed vegtables with red peppers in it and wait to see if there is a reaction. My son asked me what the black things were in the veggies. That got me started. Oh they also shy away from using colors to describe things.

Hope this helped. Good luck.
Olga

I thought that my daughter was colorblind around that age because she routinely reversed reds and greens. She is 4 now and great with colors (ie no problems). It is hard not to worry about your child and/or compare a child's development to peers in daycares/playgroups/etc, but let yourself relax and allow your son to develop his skills at his own pace. You will know when something is really wrong...enjoy watching him grow and learn.

Hi J.,
This may be a good time to take your 2 year old to a good ophthalmologist. I recommend the one attached to New York University. They have easy and good tests that can detect color blindness.
L.
www.LiveTotalWellness.com/L.

J. - I have a 3 year old that for the past 12 months I was thinking was color blind also. Same situation he is so smart in other areas but every thing we asked 'what color is this' he always responded green. I was just starting to think maybe we should try to get him tested if they can even do it this young, I'm not sure about that.

Because we worried, we made a conscious effort to really work with him on his colors for a while. The best thing to do is take solid pieces of colored paper or something simple like that. In other words, don't confuse him by showing him a yello block if you already taught him that the object is a block. it should be simple color to avoid that confusion. If the child knows shapes, don't use colored shapes to get a different response, since the object is known as a circle first. I hope this makes sense.

We did that for about 2 months and then wham! He now is very sure of his colors. I think he may have just been lazy with everything being GREEN or confused by what we really wanted to know.

I hope that helps!

When my 5 yr old was 3 we had him in a great preschool. He's a very smart child, and a bit of a smartalec, too. anyway- he always did great in class, answered questions right, seemed to know colors and shapes etc. But when it came time for testing/evaluations, he failed - not just a little, but hugely! His teacher was so confused - she would ask him what color something was and he'd answer green for blue, purple for red, and so on. He would say he had no idea on what shape was what, and would even say they were colors - we were both a bit amazed --- until I sat him down and asked him what happened. He said to me, " Mom, she knew what those shapes/colors were, I didn't need to tell her!" So, I would say, don't worry. He's only 2, and he doesn't need to know those things just yet. Let him be little while he still can. He will learn when he's ready - I think you probably have it right, he has no intrest. As for when cb surfaces, it could never develop until a person is in their 30s, - you could always just take him to the optomitrist to have an exam done if your husband is still concerned.

I was told that teaching kids colors is when they're three and then they catch on about 4 years of age. My oldest is three and I know his favorite color is red because amny of things he chooses tend to be red and that is my husband's favorite color also. Let him choose what he wants involving colors when it comes to choosing something. Give him crayons to color with and see what color he chooses mostly. Give him choices in color paper and a friend of mine noticed alot of the green were missing and her son loved green and I am not sure if it's still his favorite color or not. Keep doing things with him involving colors and have the preschool do that too if you're very concerned and ow is the time to discuss it with them so you know what you can do in the meantime and if he is C/B. Don't stress out because if he is, he is and help him to do things that whatever is expected. Be happy that your husband is taking notice with the God-Given child.

Hi- I am not sure about specifics, but am a speech language pathologist who works with birth to 5 year olds. From my work experience, there are kids (some "typical")that are in their 4's who are still unsure of all colors, even though they are usually clear by the time a child has his fourth birthday. The first step is to have them match two objects by color (yellow and red cards, for example), with out necessarily knowing what color it is. If they can match two, start adding colors one at a time. Color concepts are very abstract, even for bright little ones! I think the colors generally associated with color blindness are red and green, but I could be way off on that. I don't know if this helps, but I hope so. Good luck!