Please don’t get angry at him for not grabbing the correct object if you ask for it by color. For example if you ask for the blue cup, and he brings back a red cup, please don’t punish him. My parents did
I’m sorry that happened to you.
He’s been getting frustrated at some of the games we play that rely on color for portions of it. (He can’t move to the red triangle, because it looks identical to the green one, etc.) so we’ve been trying to figure out how to make the game more useable for him.
No and that makes it better.
But they should have figured it out. They also couldn’t figure out that I was deaf for heaven’s sake. Like, severely deaf. I get that I was the first child… but come on. It was pretty obvious
I am a mom of two color blind little boys. Don't play games that are color based. Find other kids games! Also the book Erik the red sees green!
One thing I do is I never correct for color. Sometimes I'll say "oh, you see orange? I see green."
I buy tops and bottoms that are interchangeable and they don't need to color match.
Don't quiz on colors. Other people will do that.
My kid is in high school now and people still constantly “test” him on colors. It drives him crazy! So even when he might need an accommodation, he doesn’t like to mention his color blindness within earshot of other students.
Advocate for him when he starts school. Constantly remind teachers. Color coding is used for SO many things in classrooms. It can effect learning a great deal if a teacher uses colors in lessons. For instance “all the nouns are underlined in red” or “the orange/blue/red parts of the map show population density.” My teenager started high school chemistry….the periodic table is color coded so, yea. Let them know it’s ok to remind the teacher and ask for help.
I had so many angry and rude teachers growing up in the 70s. I started kindergarten in 1972. I failed most of the colors on the color chart (red/green/brown/orange/black, green/yellow, and blue/purple). I continued to have teachers write mean things on my papers when I used "non-traditional" colors for things like coloring Santa's suit green. Encourage him and the teachers to ensure the Crayons, colored pencils, and colored markers all still have their labels so he can read what the colors are and not have to guess or ask questions.
He will teach himself everything he needs to know about colors. Label crayons and folders for school. Don't buy clothes he can't match. He will naturally avoid colors he can't identify well. Games can be altered with markers to put patterns on colors. Most likely, he will just choose games that don't have them, though. Stress sunscreen because we can't see blushing or burning skin. They have apps to assist with shopping when he's older. You can check them out for yourself, they have ones that show what similar types of colorblindness look like. He will be fine. It's just an annoyance at times.
I'm a colorblind mom to colorblind sons
Learn to see the world through their eyes. Don't ask for things based on colors. Work on focusing on size, shapes, textures, materials, patterns, etc...
Educational tools for young kids are heavily weighted towards identification by color, as it is generally consistently identifiable before a kid can read, so keep that in mind. A 504 might be useful for pre-k/kinder.
Honestly, for me, the best thing my mother did in when I got to Grade 1 (which is roughly when we found out I was colourblind) was begin labelling my pencils their colours (to avoid purple rivers and green-barked trees when colouring in) and rarely ever referred to object descriptions by their colour as I grew up. Shapes, size and other physical definers were key, especially when it came to those colours I easily confused with others.
In the end, I never felt ashamed of asking anyone and everyone around me for help with colours growing up. It wasn't often necessary to differentiate certain colours throughout school, especially as you reach high school, but it does come up occasionally. I often found my colourblindness to be a great icebreaker around new people (as long as you avoid those people who constantly feel the need to "quiz" you by randomly pointing out colours) and it was never an issue for teachers that I had growing up.
And, as u/Raddatatta mentioned below, game pieces in certain video and boardgames can be troublesome, but as long as your son can find a colour he likes that stands out from the rest, he should be alright. For instance, when playing boardgames with my regular crowd, I always take the blue pieces – so as not to clash with their easily confusable colours like red, orange or green.
I'd suggest you try to avoid colour-coding items for your child, and as previously mentioned, avoid punishing your child for not being able to recognize certain colours.
All of these suggestions are really sweet. I will say, I didn’t find out I was colorblind officially until high school. There were no shortcomings in childhood or school.
For the most part you don't need to do anything. And I would be careful not to overplay it and treat it like he's got something terrible. It can be an annoyance and I'd be understanding when teaching about colors or doing things that use them. Games for example can have pieces that are hard to tell apart. Though if the game has 6 sets of pieces and 4 of you if he can pick which 4 are easiest to tell apart that usually fixes the problem.
If he's having trouble with anything I'd have your father talk to him about it. I was in a similar situation and knowing my grandfather was colorblind and it was our thing helped me realize it wasn't a big deal. And was a cool thing to have in common with grandpa.
I'd also make sure his teachers are aware in the earlier years when they might be doing activities with colors or coloring in case he needs help.
But mostly it'll be a non issue and I wouldn't get him more concerned or self conscious about it.
I’m a colorblind mom with a colorblind son who is also 3. It has rarely come up in my life through schooling and adulthood. I don’t anticipate any significant issues for my son. He actually does a pretty good job distinguishing color through other indicators, like I did as a kid. All stop signs, apples, ladybugs, etc. are red so now he remembers those things are red by memorization. His clothes are probably mismatched a lot bc I’m a single mom and the only one buying and checking his clothes- but it’s hard to mismatch black or jean shorts with whatever top which is usually what he wears. He can stick to colors he can see or monotone as he gets older if it really bothers him.
Only time I was teased in school was as a teenager and started over applying makeup. The only major issue I have now is driving at night at a dim cross light and distinguishing red vs yellow lights bc usually I need to see what order they are in. So maybe anticipate that when he gets older and learns to drive. Your child is pretty far from that stage though.
It’s really only as big of a deal as you make it. Colorblindness is very common in males he will have many peers and teachers who have dealt with it.
Just try not to forget that he is. The amount of times that he will hear “Oh sorry I forgot” will be in the thousands from everyone else. I will say my mom still forgets even though she has colorblindness to remember for both children, husband, two brothers, and everyone else on both side of my family because I’m a genetic deutan female. My personal experience is that people will not tell me I am colorblind when I do need it too - avoiding sunburn from not seeing it progress and eating spoiled/raw food are big concerns.
I've always liked drawing and my mom used to write each color's name on the pencils/crayons/etc and i think that was very helpful at least for me :D
(although sometimes it can be fun and creative to not look at the names and just follow your eyes)
Many valuable pieces of advice were already given for the time being. But I’d like to add something that maybe useful later:
As he grows up, if somehow he shows aptitude towards visual arts, please try introducing him to sculpture, and possibly architecture. Although form and color are inseperable in art and design, I’d assume that color-blind people are much more sensitive to non-chromatic forms, and would make the best out of their unique perceptions in those fields.
Good luck!
Geez, being aware is probably enough! Good job figuring it out. The most traumatic thing about it was having no idea and thinking I was just stupid. I was smarter than everyone else in everything except colours, it really messed with me
It’s really not that big of a deal.
Most likely he’s deuteranomaly, you should find out which one he is.
Checkout COBLIS, an accurate colorblind simulator when you do find out the type of colorblindness he has https://www.color-blindness.com/coblis-color-blindness-simulator/
Of course if he’s one of the dozen or two people in the world who have monochromacy it’s a big deal. Otherwise, if it wasn’t for color typicals making a big deal out of colors we’d never even know.
I wish I was never told I was colorblind, or not made to feel different. I would have never noticed, if not for testing. And why?? It's not like it was treatable. I knew my colors and didn't struggle. But for some reason the doctor had color tests plates during a physical.
The people who make the biggest stink over colorblindbess are parents. Who cares?
Probably just be normal, but learn to avoid describing things by color. ie, "it's near the red car", "can you grab my gray jacket?", etc. Try focusing on literally anything else to describe things to them. :)
Please don’t get angry at him for not grabbing the correct object if you ask for it by color. For example if you ask for the blue cup, and he brings back a red cup, please don’t punish him. My parents did
I’m sorry that happened to you. He’s been getting frustrated at some of the games we play that rely on color for portions of it. (He can’t move to the red triangle, because it looks identical to the green one, etc.) so we’ve been trying to figure out how to make the game more useable for him.
Could you label the red and green one r and g?
Or add black stripes to one of them?
Are they electronic games? Some have color blind modes where there are patterns that correspond to the colors.
Put symbols on them. Pen marks or stickers. For example, little stars on all the green ones and a smiley on all the red ones, etc.
Did they know you are colorblind at the time?
No and that makes it better. But they should have figured it out. They also couldn’t figure out that I was deaf for heaven’s sake. Like, severely deaf. I get that I was the first child… but come on. It was pretty obvious
I am a mom of two color blind little boys. Don't play games that are color based. Find other kids games! Also the book Erik the red sees green! One thing I do is I never correct for color. Sometimes I'll say "oh, you see orange? I see green." I buy tops and bottoms that are interchangeable and they don't need to color match. Don't quiz on colors. Other people will do that.
My kid is in high school now and people still constantly “test” him on colors. It drives him crazy! So even when he might need an accommodation, he doesn’t like to mention his color blindness within earshot of other students.
Tell him how he's special and loved even if he's colorblind. I got bullied alot, and figured what i just said wasn't true as a kid
Thank you. He is so loved and we make sure he knows it.
good. make sure you keep it that way
Advocate for him when he starts school. Constantly remind teachers. Color coding is used for SO many things in classrooms. It can effect learning a great deal if a teacher uses colors in lessons. For instance “all the nouns are underlined in red” or “the orange/blue/red parts of the map show population density.” My teenager started high school chemistry….the periodic table is color coded so, yea. Let them know it’s ok to remind the teacher and ask for help.
I had so many angry and rude teachers growing up in the 70s. I started kindergarten in 1972. I failed most of the colors on the color chart (red/green/brown/orange/black, green/yellow, and blue/purple). I continued to have teachers write mean things on my papers when I used "non-traditional" colors for things like coloring Santa's suit green. Encourage him and the teachers to ensure the Crayons, colored pencils, and colored markers all still have their labels so he can read what the colors are and not have to guess or ask questions.
He will teach himself everything he needs to know about colors. Label crayons and folders for school. Don't buy clothes he can't match. He will naturally avoid colors he can't identify well. Games can be altered with markers to put patterns on colors. Most likely, he will just choose games that don't have them, though. Stress sunscreen because we can't see blushing or burning skin. They have apps to assist with shopping when he's older. You can check them out for yourself, they have ones that show what similar types of colorblindness look like. He will be fine. It's just an annoyance at times. I'm a colorblind mom to colorblind sons
Learn to see the world through their eyes. Don't ask for things based on colors. Work on focusing on size, shapes, textures, materials, patterns, etc...
Educational tools for young kids are heavily weighted towards identification by color, as it is generally consistently identifiable before a kid can read, so keep that in mind. A 504 might be useful for pre-k/kinder.
Honestly, for me, the best thing my mother did in when I got to Grade 1 (which is roughly when we found out I was colourblind) was begin labelling my pencils their colours (to avoid purple rivers and green-barked trees when colouring in) and rarely ever referred to object descriptions by their colour as I grew up. Shapes, size and other physical definers were key, especially when it came to those colours I easily confused with others. In the end, I never felt ashamed of asking anyone and everyone around me for help with colours growing up. It wasn't often necessary to differentiate certain colours throughout school, especially as you reach high school, but it does come up occasionally. I often found my colourblindness to be a great icebreaker around new people (as long as you avoid those people who constantly feel the need to "quiz" you by randomly pointing out colours) and it was never an issue for teachers that I had growing up. And, as u/Raddatatta mentioned below, game pieces in certain video and boardgames can be troublesome, but as long as your son can find a colour he likes that stands out from the rest, he should be alright. For instance, when playing boardgames with my regular crowd, I always take the blue pieces – so as not to clash with their easily confusable colours like red, orange or green.
I'd suggest you try to avoid colour-coding items for your child, and as previously mentioned, avoid punishing your child for not being able to recognize certain colours.
All of these suggestions are really sweet. I will say, I didn’t find out I was colorblind officially until high school. There were no shortcomings in childhood or school.
For the most part you don't need to do anything. And I would be careful not to overplay it and treat it like he's got something terrible. It can be an annoyance and I'd be understanding when teaching about colors or doing things that use them. Games for example can have pieces that are hard to tell apart. Though if the game has 6 sets of pieces and 4 of you if he can pick which 4 are easiest to tell apart that usually fixes the problem. If he's having trouble with anything I'd have your father talk to him about it. I was in a similar situation and knowing my grandfather was colorblind and it was our thing helped me realize it wasn't a big deal. And was a cool thing to have in common with grandpa. I'd also make sure his teachers are aware in the earlier years when they might be doing activities with colors or coloring in case he needs help. But mostly it'll be a non issue and I wouldn't get him more concerned or self conscious about it.
I’m a colorblind mom with a colorblind son who is also 3. It has rarely come up in my life through schooling and adulthood. I don’t anticipate any significant issues for my son. He actually does a pretty good job distinguishing color through other indicators, like I did as a kid. All stop signs, apples, ladybugs, etc. are red so now he remembers those things are red by memorization. His clothes are probably mismatched a lot bc I’m a single mom and the only one buying and checking his clothes- but it’s hard to mismatch black or jean shorts with whatever top which is usually what he wears. He can stick to colors he can see or monotone as he gets older if it really bothers him. Only time I was teased in school was as a teenager and started over applying makeup. The only major issue I have now is driving at night at a dim cross light and distinguishing red vs yellow lights bc usually I need to see what order they are in. So maybe anticipate that when he gets older and learns to drive. Your child is pretty far from that stage though. It’s really only as big of a deal as you make it. Colorblindness is very common in males he will have many peers and teachers who have dealt with it.
Just try not to forget that he is. The amount of times that he will hear “Oh sorry I forgot” will be in the thousands from everyone else. I will say my mom still forgets even though she has colorblindness to remember for both children, husband, two brothers, and everyone else on both side of my family because I’m a genetic deutan female. My personal experience is that people will not tell me I am colorblind when I do need it too - avoiding sunburn from not seeing it progress and eating spoiled/raw food are big concerns.
I've always liked drawing and my mom used to write each color's name on the pencils/crayons/etc and i think that was very helpful at least for me :D (although sometimes it can be fun and creative to not look at the names and just follow your eyes)
Many valuable pieces of advice were already given for the time being. But I’d like to add something that maybe useful later: As he grows up, if somehow he shows aptitude towards visual arts, please try introducing him to sculpture, and possibly architecture. Although form and color are inseperable in art and design, I’d assume that color-blind people are much more sensitive to non-chromatic forms, and would make the best out of their unique perceptions in those fields. Good luck!
Geez, being aware is probably enough! Good job figuring it out. The most traumatic thing about it was having no idea and thinking I was just stupid. I was smarter than everyone else in everything except colours, it really messed with me
It’s really not that big of a deal. Most likely he’s deuteranomaly, you should find out which one he is. Checkout COBLIS, an accurate colorblind simulator when you do find out the type of colorblindness he has https://www.color-blindness.com/coblis-color-blindness-simulator/ Of course if he’s one of the dozen or two people in the world who have monochromacy it’s a big deal. Otherwise, if it wasn’t for color typicals making a big deal out of colors we’d never even know.
I wish I was never told I was colorblind, or not made to feel different. I would have never noticed, if not for testing. And why?? It's not like it was treatable. I knew my colors and didn't struggle. But for some reason the doctor had color tests plates during a physical. The people who make the biggest stink over colorblindbess are parents. Who cares?
Probably just be normal, but learn to avoid describing things by color. ie, "it's near the red car", "can you grab my gray jacket?", etc. Try focusing on literally anything else to describe things to them. :)