My two year old boy, I must say, knows his colors almost without fail. One exception that I keep noticing is that when presented with something that is blue or yellow, he will sometimes (not irregularly) guess the other. When prompted he will change his answer directly to the correct color. It’s happened enough that I have taken note, and I don’t recall it happening with any other color pairs.
I looked up some articles on colorblindness, but the closest I could come was tritanopia, or blue/yellow colorblindness.
It sounds like a promising explanation, except that he has no problem with other shades that should be effected; he has no problem naming at first go orange, purple, green, or even pink for that matter. Come to think of it, ‘orange’ was the first color he named.
So is there something I’m potentially missing from the standpoint of his perception? Or is it just something that got confused early in the learning process that will work itself out?
Blue-Yellow colorblindness is pretty darn rare, though. Although it’s not an inheritable trait like Red-Green, which gets much more press. Blue-Yellow is a random genetic quirk, from what I’ve read.
Red-Green affects something like 5% of males, and like .05% of females.
Blue-Yellow, on the other hand, affects something like .01% of males and females.
And that number most likely includes individuals who are merely Blue-Yellow deficient, with the true number of Blue-Yellow colorblindness being quite a lot lower than that, even.
I think it’s more likely to be that your son just gets the NAMES for these colors mixed up in his head. Although a quick trip to the optometrist could probably put your mind at ease.
He is two for Pete’s sake. He is still learning to talk. There are a lot of words to learn. It is hard.
In any case, if he is colorblind:
[ol]
[li]It really is not a very serious handicap. Heck, nobody ever noticed that colorblindness was a thing until 1794.[/li][li]There’s not a darn thing you or anyone else can do about it.[/li][li](Obligatory mention of Opal.)[/li][/ol]
Doctors, optometrists, etc. can’t help with colorblindness. There is no cure, no treatment. However, it does not really matter (unless you are determined that he will grow up to be a fashion designer or something). Don’t worry.
Well, first off I’m not worried! Just curious about it.
Of course if I am concerned about a condition, I will consult a doctor.
Ok, did remember that he confuses black and white…it just didn’t register as much because it makes more sense to me that he would get those two mixed up, rather than two dissimilar colors.
Of course it makes sense that he could confuse the names of colors. Just wondered if it could be a perception thing, or a learning thing.
My mom told me that when I was about your son’s age, they thought I might be colorblind, but only with respect to certain colors. It seems that whenever I was presented with a red object, I would identify it as blue (and vice-versa). It turned out that I just had the names mixed up. So yeah, I’m gonna guess that’s what happened to your son.
Fear not.
As this article in Scientific American explains, the English language is to blame. We put the color descriptor first, so instead of saying, “the shoe that is blue,” we say “the blue shoe.” It may not seem like a big deal, but for a brain developing its understanding of language and how it relates to the world around it, it can be very confusing. One has to reverse word order to gain context of what is being described.
This is entirely anecdotal, but that seems to be what most parenting advice is.
I have a three-year old son. When he was two, he used to get blue and yellow mixed up too … it straightened itself out within a few months. He still, sometimes, gets black and white confused, and he hasn’t mastered brown or gray yet. (Then again, he’s male – have any of us?)
He more or less knows his numbers in order from 1 - 20, and he can recognize the letters of the alphabet – but he hasn’t yet learned that they’re different sets. So, for instance, if one of his toy trains isn’t numbered, and I ask him to pick a number, he’ll he’ll suggest … number B. Or number K. I figure he’ll get there eventually.
You need to test your son for colour recognition seperatly from the language recognition. Saying “Show me the blue card” brings language into it.
Instead, you would need a test like researchers do with animals to find out what colours they can differentiate: two identical boxes, the lids in different colours, one box has the toy or a M&M in it. Start with obviously different colours and then go to very similar hues. If the kid is uncertain which box contains the reward, then the colours are no longer distinguishable.
Blue-Yellow is a random genetic quirk, from what I’ve read.
I hope yours does too.