OT: Colorblindness

[Alex2kMommy]

Colorblindness runs in my family, so I have always been aware that my sons might have it as well. I recently found an online test series, so I ran through it with DS5, and he responded to each test as a person with red-green color deficiency would.

The website that had the test also allowed guests to post their experiences, and I was really horrified by some of the ones relating to unaware teachers. I can tell that DS5 is already a bit self-conscious about this, so I'm trying to educate myself as much as possible to minimize any impacts the color deficiency may bring.

I'm wondering if anyone else out there has experience in this and could point out some good sources of information? The website did mention several books, but they seemed mostly to do with diagnosing or explaining color deficiency, and I guess I'm looking more for practical tips on helping my child (and those around him) in dealing with it.

My dad has always treated this as a minor inconvenience, so I'm not expecting DS to have a lot of problems either, I would just like to make sure we take a proactive approach, and provide help and awareness where we can so it doesn't impact his education.

Thank you!

 

[daisyduck123]

I don't know of any resources but I'm just wondering if you've also taken him to the pediatrician. Color blindness also runs in my family (paternal grandfather, male first cousin) & my pediatrician administered a test to my DS8 when he was quite young. Just thought I'd throw that out at you. A pediatrician should have a list of resources.

**BTW, about 15 years ago, when teaching 1st grade, I was the one who figured out that one of my students was color blind. His parents didn't know, his doctor, or his kindergarten teacher. I had to walk down the hall & tell her, "I think I know the reason for some of Johnny's difficulties last year".

 

[Alex2kMommy]

I have brought it up at his check-ups, and at the last one (and at the eye exam) at age 5, she administered a simple test, but it was inconclusive because he didn't know some of the colors and the higher numbers. (The tests were geared more toward adults. I have since seen tests geared for children that use shapes, like a sailboat, rather than numbers.)

He will see the eye doctor again next month, and I have told her this time that I'm sure he's colorblind. She is going to talk about it with him because I told her he seemed a bit self-conscious, and also try to determine the severity.

Looking back, it makes sense to me that he didn't know many of the colors like pink and purple. I thought red-green deficiency meant he would have trouble seeing those colors, but it's any color that has those colors in it, which is darn near all colors! I mentioned to my dad the surprising colors DS had trouble with, and he said, "Oh, yup, me too. Yeah, that one, too..." I never knew the extent of it!

 

[1stluvispooh]

As a former optitian who by the way worked with an opthamolgist who was EXTREMLY color blind my advice to you would be to go to a opthamolgist preferably one who specilaiszes in children and have him give your DS the test. If it is exreme there are contacts or I should say contact that will help. The Dr. I worked with tried it but found it more of a hassel. At 41 he had lived all his life with color blinds and was a minor annoyance. (Manly when we would tell him that his tie didn't match his shirt! or threaten to go to his house and geranimal his closet )

 

[VirtuallyMe]

I don't have any resources to offer either...

My husband and his three brothers are all colorblind- but all see different colors...

His youngest brother had other vision problems and was actually diagnosed in middle school but nothing done about it at that point, his older brother was diagnosed when doing a physical for the national guard- which because of the colors he had difficulty with (browns and greens) he was prohibited a combat position.

I diagnosed my husband- jokingly at first- his wardrobe when we met was almost all neutrals (brown, black and white and shades there of)- but after we married I noticed he'd do things like purchase new tooth brushes and tell me mine was the pink his was the blue and the tooth brushes were actually two different shades of purple. And the sincher was when he was all excited to find a pair of Nike tennis shoes on special in his size and showed them too me and the swoosh was purple- I laughed and had to have our 2 1/2 year old son tell him the swoosh was purple because he didn't believe me.

He said growing up he could tell things were different colors but they all looked like shades of blue- (he doesn't see reds) but if something was mostly red it looked different from blue and he'd call it purple or red- sort of like watching black and white television as a kid I used to be able to guess colors of clothing based on the shade of black/gray...

So far none of my children are colorblind (I have a two yo who still doesn't identify enough colors to even suspect anything yet) and my niece and nephews on his side of the family do not have it either.

I think many learn to adapt to the problems- my younger brother in law has trouble with traffic signals that aren't configured with the red on top, yellow in center and green on bottom- the ones that are on the side give him trouble- at least they did when he first started driving about 20 years ago... And with the exception of me having to have my husband show me which color purple tooth brush is mine when he buys new ones- we don't have much trouble there either. And he has learned to ask me or the kids if his ties match his shirt if either or both are new- He did mention that he wished they'd make garanimals for adults though...

Good luck-

 

[rhiannonwales]

My husband is colorblind to, but doesnt fit neatly into any one catagory - he does not see purple at all ( he thinks its blue) and has trouble with greens and browns as well.

He has learned to adapt to it, although it can be difficult at times... when we first got together we used to fight ALL the time because i would ask him for the ________ item (insert color) and hed always bring me the wrong thing.

Oddly enough, DH has a job in the photography field, photographing people and printing and color correcting high quality professional images.I have no idea how he does it, but he is very good at what he does.Maybe his "disability" really is an "ability" for his line of work!
Sherrie

 

[lovethattink]

My husband is color blind. It was discovered when he was in kindergarten and made both the leaves and trees brown. It never posed a problem to him until he was in college. Chemistry lab was quite a challenge for him. Especiallly where you had to write down your results for the lab report. The colors he saw were way different that what they were suppose to have been. He got the point where he'd do research ahead of time to see what colors things were to be.

 

[Alex2kMommy]

VirtuallyMe, the pink/blue/purple thing is what finally clued me in - He was calling everything blue, and at first I figured (as a little boy) those would likely be the last colors he would learn...then I recognized he ALWAYS called pink "blue". He called a pink azalea blue. He called a pale pink heart blue... I asked the color of another flowering plant with (I think) red flowers, and he said green, and didn't realize there were flowers on it.

Red-green color deficiency is the most common form, and is associated with the 'X' chromosome. Therefore it will pass from father (who will be colorblind) to daughter (who will be a carrier) to grandson, and so on. My father is colorblind, my brothers and their children are unaffected, my sister and I are carriers, and my sons are the only ones in the next generation who would be affected.

rhiannonwales, you brought up an interesting point about your DH going into a field where color vision is so important and 'seeing' some things better. My mom told me of an artist who is colorblind, and my dad swears he can see animals in nature before others because of his colorblindness, perhaps because he's used to looking at things that all look like different shades of the same color.

My son (and my father) have trouble with the same colors as your DH, which is the red-green deficiency. I was very surprised to learn that it wasn't just that they have trouble distinguishing red from green, it's any color with red in it and any color with green in it (which is most colors!)

 

[VirtuallyMe]

rhiannonwales, you brought up an interesting point about your DH going into a field where color vision is so important and 'seeing' some things better. My mom told me of an artist who is colorblind, and my dad swears he can see animals in nature before others because of his colorblindness, perhaps because he's used to looking at things that all look like different shades of the same color.

Actually being colorblind is a common trait with millitary snipers- they can often see through some cammoflage depending on the type of colorblindness- which would enable them to pick out their targets more easily. And your dad to spot animals in nature...

So it does have advantages as well

 

[Poohnatic]

I still worry that my youngest has minor issues. His test was inconclusive for the same reason that your son's was. I should go find those online tests.

My dad was Protan colorblind and my first husband was Duotan colorblind. If I'd had kids with him, the plunnett square was stacked against them!

My dad handled the colorblindness so well that I didn't know for sure until I was 18 and we were shopping for clothes for him. This was when Izod and LeTigre polo shirts were all the rage and he wanted them-just wanted to be sure he didn't get any strange colors!

Suzanne

 

[phillybeth]

My husband is color blind. It was discovered when he was in kindergarten and made both the leaves and trees brown. It never posed a problem to him until he was in college. Chemistry lab was quite a challenge for him. Especiallly where you had to write down your results for the lab report. The colors he saw were way different that what they were suppose to have been. He got the point where he'd do research ahead of time to see what colors things were to be.

Was your DH my lab partner? One of my lab partners in college had brown/green colorblindness- the professor asked in the first lab since many tests are color-based.

 

[Alex2kMommy]

Actually being colorblind is a common trait with millitary snipers- they can often see through some cammoflage depending on the type of colorblindness- which would enable them to pick out their targets more easily. And your dad to spot animals in nature...

So it does have advantages as well

Very interesting! I'm emailing my dad now...

 

[Alex2kMommy]

I still worry that my youngest has minor issues. His test was inconclusive for the same reason that your son's was. I should go find those online tests.

The tests I found online were the same ones the doctor's office had tried, but I just asked: Do you see a number here? And say the number was 27, he would say '2'. Then I asked if he saw another number, and he said, 'Yes, a 7'. It took a little longer, but he responded to every single test exactly like one would expect of red-green deficiency, it was totally clear. There are new tests for children that use shapes instead of numbers, but they cost a lot of money, so I didn't bother.

This is one test we did online:
http://colorvisiontesting.com/online test.htm

We did another where we entered in numbers he saw, and then it gave us the results. But maybe that was the 'joke' test; after several real tests, it suddenly threw up an image of a shrieking woman with blood running down her face and knives stuck in her head! It was pretty awful, and really scared DS. Be careful of unfamiliar websites!

 

[LilyWDW]

I have a dear friend who is red/green colorblind. His grandfather also had this type of colorblindness and his grandmother had painted their bathroom pink since he would be unable to tell. Well, they found out my friend was colorblind when he was young when they asked him about the pink bathroom... and he went "what pink bathroom?".

It was never an issue for him until just a couple semesters ago in college. He is a major in digital media, which is no issue since he can remember the numbers for certien colors and just type them in instead of looking for them. However, they required the poor boy to take a class "color theory" which I was also in. We had the WORSE instructor. She had no compassion for him, forcing him to mix paint with no help from anyone else. She would tear him apart when his colors were not right on. I finally told her to back off because he couldn't SEE THEM!

She finally allowed him to do his projects on the computer half way through the semester after disability services threatened her with disiplinary action if she didn't.

Some people just don't understand it...

 

[Alex2kMommy]

LilyWDW, this is the kind of stuff that scares me! At least your friend was old enough to stand up for himself. I don't know if this kind of thing just didn't happen to my dad, or if he's just of the generation that doesn't talk about it. He's always made it sound like it's hardly even a problem...though my mom does lay out clothes for him every day.

 

[Poohnatic]

Alex2kMommy, thanks for the link. The online test confirmed what I've suspected for a while.

After living with a colorblind parent and ex husband, at least we'll be able to teach my little guy some tricks of the trade. Luckily, it's just dark brown that seems to be a problem.

Suzanne

 

[Alex2kMommy]

Poohnatic, I think it will be worthwhile to have further testing to find out the severity of the deficiency. At my eye exam last week, I asked the doc if she would be able to test DS for severity, and she said yes, to a large extent; however, for a very precise measurement, we'd have to go to a university or hospital.

I'm not sure if I'll do that or not, I basically just want to have an idea of how much he can or cannot see, and be able to express that to his teachers. When my dad was a kid (and me, too!) we had black or green chalkboards with white chalk, and mimeographs or white paper with black printing. Now the teachers use colored chalk, hand out assignments or tests printed on color printers onto colored paper, and so forth, so I can see how it must be harder these days. Thank goodness people tend to be more aware about this sort of thing, so hopefully once they are informed the teacher will be more conscious of how s/he is presenting their material.

 

[dj2]

I have some reg/green issues mostly in one eye due to a severe case of optic neuritis about 20 years ago that never quite healed properly. about 3 years after that, i once asked a supervisor to mark up my work in blue ink as it stood out on the paper for me more than the red she was using. on the project evaluation she wrote for me for that project, there was some sort of minor negative comment about my request. i guess she thought i was being picky. i probably didn't do a good enough job of explaining it as a "disability."

 

[lovethattink]

Was your DH my lab partner? One of my lab partners in college had brown/green colorblindness- the professor asked in the first lab since many tests are color-based.

Rofl, if you went to college in Ohio, maybe. He never did tell anyone he was color blind. I found out when he was helping me find a peach colored shirt and he kept handing me mint green.

 

[sameyeyam]

My husband is extremely colorblind. However, he never bothered to tell me!

I was on vacation visiting my mother. He called to tell me that he had just purchased a new truck. Told me all the exciting news and that it was a Blue Ford Ranger pickup truck.

When I returned home for vacation I waited in front of the airport for the new Blue truck to pick us up. Then he pulled up in a "Purple" truck! It was only then that I discovered he was colorblind and it ran in his family.

Well we've now had the Purple truck for 10 years. But the entire family is not allowed to call it purple -- it's the Blue Truck!

So far thats been the only adverse effect of his color blindness on our 20 years together!