One in 200 girls and one in 12 boys are colour blind, often known as colour vision deficiency.
According to Healthline, it is genetically passed through the X-linked chromosome and is hence far more prevalent in boys. According to how it works, a grandfather who is colour-blind is very likely to pass that condition on to his grandson through his daughter.
Even for adults, it can be challenging to identify colour blindness in young children and toddlers. Due to improper screening, a lack of understanding on the part of teachers, parents, and even some physicians, many children receive diagnoses at a later age.
If you can identify a kid or toddler who is colour-blind, you can move quickly to rectify their vision and get them ready for school by giving them a pair of colour-blind glasses.
Our retinas include three different kinds of cone cells, each of which is in charge of detecting either red, green, or blue light, according to BioMed Central.
One type of colour blindness prevents the correct interpretation of light wavelengths. The brain consequently receives false information and is unable to correctly comprehend colour.
The most typical scenario is a young toddler who has trouble telling the difference between red and green colours.
The most typical type of colour blindness, writes Disability Info South Africa, is a red-green colour deficit. This frequently makes it difficult to tell colours apart, including reds, greens, browns, oranges, blues, and purples.
You are born with red-green colour blindness, which is frequently inherited (genetic). Your parents pass this trait on to you. However, this sort of colour blindness can occasionally develop with ageing, along with other varieties.
Other varieties of colour blindness include monochromatic colour blindness, which only sees hues of black, white, and grey, and blue colour blindness, which makes it difficult to distinguish between shades of black and blue. However, less than 1% of colour-blind people are impacted by this.
Based on the Calgary Herald's reporting, a landmark study conducted in 1960 in California on the testability of the condition on children aged 30 to 72 months discovered that: only 17% of children younger than 37 months could be tested; 57% of children aged 37 to 48 months could be tested reliably; and by the age of six years, 98% of children could be tested with confidence.
Children who have colour blindness typically have trouble differentiating colours and make colour identification errors. However, even though they don't perceive colours in the same way that persons with normal colour vision do, many colour-blind youngsters can learn to recognise colours correctly.
Children soon learn that a fire engine is “red“ for instance and will recognise other objects that have the same colour as a fire engine as being ‘’red’’ as well.
Non-profit organisation Colour Blind Awareness states that males make up the majority of colour-blind children. Approximately 8% of boys are colour-blind to red and green. Colour blindness typically runs in the mother's family for boys.
You might be concerned if your toddler or preschooler has problems naming colours and wonder if they are colour-blind. The truth is that many children take a very long time to learn their colours as their speech develops.
Therefore, naming colours is not a reliable indicator of a child's colour vision. For instance, incorrectly colouring objects, such as tinting the sky in purple, is a warning indication of colour blindness.
No child should be picked on for something they are unable to control, and early detection will prevent embarrassing situations at school.
Teachers frequently mistakenly think that these kids are ‘’lacking behind’’ or just being foolish when, in fact, their colour blindness is the issue.
How then do you determine if they genuinely suffer from colour blindness? Here are several warning indications that your child may be colour-blind, according to statistics from Colour Blind Awareness:
– Utilising the incorrect colours while painting or drawing an item, such as purple leaves on trees or green faces.
– Not paying enough attention when colouring worksheets.
– Denying the existence of colour problems; and difficulty distinguishing red or green colour pencils or any colour pencil that contains red or green in its formula, for instance, telling pink from grey, red from brown, and purple from blue apart.
The ability to smell food before eating is also a tell-tale sign, as are: sensitivity to bright lights and some colour combinations, reading difficulties with coloured pages or worksheets produced with colour on colour and your children complaining that they can't tell one colour from another.
Additionally, identification of colours may be made worse by low level lights, working with small areas of colour and colours of the same hue, but, on the other hand, they may find that colours are easier to distinguish between in good natural daylight.
Don't wait to find out whether your child has colour blindness if you suspect they could. If there are any colour-blind men on the mother's side of the family, including grandfathers, great-grandfathers, uncles, and cousins, you should be immediately sceptical.
Children with normal colour vision will be able to quickly recognise each group of hues by the age of five.
Obtain a sheet of white paper and a basic set of coloured pencils in at least 12 different colours, including green, red, brown, orange, blue, purple, and grey. Do this to determine whether your child may have a colour vision issue.
Shade an area of the paper that is roughly 2 cm by 2 cm in size with each colour, using mid-range tones that are neither too light nor too dark.
Place red, green, and brown next to one another while making sure the colours are in a random arrangement and aren't all grouped together.
The experts at Colour Blind Awareness suggest taking your child and the paper to a location with decent natural light (but not bright light, artificial light, or intense sunshine) and making up a fun game in which you ask your child to name every hue on the sheet.
They must be able to view all of the colours at once, do not show them each colour separately.
Do not ask your child about the colours of objects in the house after this activity if you have any reason to believe they may be colour-blind. According to research, if you do this, they can clam up, which could lower their confidence.
Since a formal diagnosis is required for children who are colour-blind in order for them to receive the appropriate support at school, you should always validate this procedure with an optometrist.
Don't forget to inform the school in writing about your child's diagnosis and request that it be kept on file in their academic file.