Joey Knight was puzzled. What did his parents mean by color?
Green shirt, red shirt, brown shirt, gray shirt. Huh? They all
looked pretty much the same to him. He figured his parents were
just smarter than he was.
Approximately 1:12 males and 1:200 females has some degree of
color vision deficiency or colorblindness.
Pre-school books, puzzles, games and other toys are colored
intensely enough that most children can tell the colors apart,
although they may not look the same to the child with CVD as
they do to most people. However, two percent of the male
population (and a rare female) cannot see red or green at all,
and they confuse other colors as well. These children may not
catch on easily to pre-school games that are based on color.
They may also resist playing with puzzles that rely as much on
color as on shape. They may not be as enthralled with crayons as
are most children. They’d just as soon draw with a fat pencil.
They may not see optical illusions that are easy for other
children to see. These children who are severely affected by CVD
see all the reds, oranges, yellows and greens as one color and
all the blues, violets and purples as another.
Children who are mildly or moderately affected with CVD may have
difficulty matching light shades of colors, especially red (or
pink) and green. They often confuse these colors with other
colors, such as gray or tan. Those who see red faintly confuse
blue and purple because they don’t recognize the red in purple.
>From everyday conversation children learn that “grass is green,”
“the sky is blue,” etc. To help children with CVD learn color
names (but not always recognize the color itself), parents can
label objects in their homes, like a picture of a “Bear” for a
brown couch or a “Fire Engine” for red drapes, or a “Sun” for a
yellow wall (although most children with CVD recognize yellow).
Parents can also teach their youngsters the first letter of
color names printed on crayons so the children can identify them
more easily. They can also encourage pre-school teachers to
reinforce this teaching-learning process in the classroom.
It’s important — for children with and without CVD — not to
point out “mistakes” or to chide children for not naming colors
“correctly.” Some children — and adults — simply don’t see as
many colors as other people do. Also, it’s better for parents to
say, “I like that green shirt” rather than ask, “What color is
your shirt?”
A mother with a preschooler who had a moderate CVD said her
husband had become extremely frustrated with their son because
he had tried to teach the boy color names. No wonder the boy
couldn’t learn color names. Some colors, especially lighter
shades, looked identical to him. Another mother with a son with
CVD said she thought her son had a language problem. “I thought
he wasn’t understanding the words,” she said, when he couldn’t
tell color names.
CVD is known as a sex-linked recessive disorder. It is carried
on the X chromosome. A male has an X and a Y chromosome, and a
female has two X chromosomes. When a male inherits an affected
X, he will have CVD because, unlike a female, he doesn’t have an
unaffected X to dominate the affected X. Because a male always
passes his Y chromosome to his sons, he does not pass CVD to his
sons; he does, however, pass his X to his daughters who are then
“carriers.” A carrier typically doesn’t show symptoms of CVD,
but has a 50 percent chance of passing her affected X on to each
of her children. The females who inherit the X will, like their
mothers, be carriers; the males who inherit the affected X will,
like their maternal grandfathers, have CVD.
If you have a concern about your child’s color vision, consult
an eye care specialist. Specialists generally have color vision
tests for pre-school children. Your local school nurse can
usually test children as young as four easily and quickly using
special books that utilize an affected person’s confusion of red
and green with gray.
Best of all, a child need not realize that he “failed” the test.
He can simply be told how well he did. Parents can speak with
the examiner beforehand to be sure this happens. “Your eyes are
fine. You just don’t see as many colors as most people,” is one
explanation. The child can be told he’s like his (maternal)
Grandpa or perhaps a (maternal) uncle. Usually, the type of the
CVD as well as its degree — whether it’s mild, moderate or
severe — runs in families. The child observes that the older
family member has coped well with his CVD. There’s no need in
the pre-school years to delve into occupations that require
accurate color vision.
The child with a severe CVD might realize that in some instances
he can actually “see” things that others have difficulty seeing.
For instance, some animals are camouflaged — chameleons, for
instance. Their color changes according to their surroundings. A
child with typical color vision might not see a chameleon as
readily as a child with severely reduced color vision. A child
with severe CVD is not confused by color and pays more attention
to form, shape and movement.
A delightful book that explores feelings associated with colors
is Mary Le Duc’s Hailstones and Halibut Bones. This book can be
enjoyed by parents and children regardless of their color
vision.
