And what about colour vision deficiency (or Colour Blindness)?
Colour and shape are two of the primary ways in which humans visually perceive the world. Consider anything you care to look at; what do you first notice about it? How would you describe it to someone who can’t see it and wouldn’t know what it is called? There is no doubt that we consider the shape of a thing, be it hard angles or soft curves, tall or short, wide or narrow etc. but surely the first thing we notice, from a visual perspective, is colour? A hillside is green; a cliff is grey, or white maybe, the sky is blue, fire is orange, the sun appears yellow in the sky, unless it is setting and then a kaleidoscope of colours can emerge and dance across our retinas. Colour is such a fundamental part of how we perceive our surroundings, recognise danger and things that are good, that we cannot remember a time we did not experience the world through colour. Hardly surprising then that we, perhaps, don’t think about what our children need to learn about colour, what we can teach them and when and how to start.
There are also several additional developmental benefits derived from teaching children about colours at an early age. These include:
Language development, the ability to describe colour in words.
Observational skills, the ability to observe a thing and decide how to categorise and group it, describe it and compare it to other things – a cornerstone of the scientific method.
Fueling children’s natural curiosity, delight at discovering new things and thirst to understand the why of things. ("why is the sky blue?" Because blue light is dispersed/scattered most in the atmosphere by diffraction of white light from the Sun.)
Developing life skills: such as understanding warning signs and health and safety information, identifying things like cuts and bruises and whether food is safe to eat or not. Indeed chefs often say we eat with our eyes first and then our noses and then our taste buds. So colour is very much a key component of the pleasure we take from life as well as being a necessary sensory perception for safety and survival.
Colour is vital to visual arts and entertainment of course
Identifying and assisting those with colour blindness to manage their condition (more about this topic below)
So when should we start actively teaching children about colour? Many people think that children are unable to differentiate between different colours until at least 18 months old. However, chiefly, that is because very young babies cannot speak to tell you they can see colour and will not understand the words you might use associated with colour but science assures us that very young babies are indeed capable of seeing colours. Their brains may not perceive colour as clearly or vividly as older children and adults do but babies begin to perceive colours between 2 and 4 months old. The first primary colour your baby can see is red, and this happens a few weeks into life. Then they start perceiving the difference between shades of greens and reds. The exact timing for when your baby will start to see these colours is individual. The point here is that it happens a lot earlier than most people think, so we should start introducing colour stimulation early. By 5 months old babies can see most colours. They still don’t see the hues quite as vividly as adults do, but other key features of vision are also developing at this time. These include your child’s:
depth perception
eye-body coordination
binocular vision (ability of their eyes to work together)
So from an early age babies can see red and green and black and white but not yet subtle shades. Therefore, it makes sense to surround them with bold primary colours and blacks and whites. Many early learning toys, such as textured shapes and books, employ these bold colours. Colour learning can also be incorporated into other learning topics such as shapes and fruits (see our piece on Learning about Shapes and Colours and see below for videos on this topic). Also, introduce the concept of a rainbow and its 7 colours (or 6, depending on how you feel about it) when they get a little older. Another good practice is to constantly name the colours being used with children, whether they be physical objects, pictures in books or even implements like plates, bowels and spoons. Babies may not understand the words yet but they will before they can evidence that by repeating the words back to you [see our piece on learning the alphabet entitled How to teach your child their ABCs? for more on this early learning topic].
And don’t forget to name colours and point out things like warning signs when out and about with toddlers and preschoolers. Seeing things at work in the real world is invaluable learning for children [see our series on the UNESCO report on How Children Learn for more on this topic & our related piece entitled How getting out and about with kids helps their learning]. Also ask them what colour things are to see if they are both recognising the colour and developing the ability to name it. An obvious further development when kids are old enough is to do messy play with paints and colouring pencils or crayons. Hand printing with paint or printing with stencils and stamps is another good creative exercise to develop colour appreciation. And even children as young as one and a half or two can enjoy making random paint strokes with paint brushes. A little later you can get them interested in mixing paints to get different colours.
At Little Wriggler we developed a video that showcases some of the many iconic things that are associated with each of the main colours in the visible spectrum, including white (all of the visible spectrum colours in one) and black (none of the colours). This video is designed to introduce the main colours and relate these to real world manifestations of those colours. This is not only a good way to expose kids to the concept of colours but also beneficial to those who experience some form of colour blindness (see below for more on this) as they can remember the names of the colours associated with important things.
There is also a follow along workbook associated with our learning about colours video [see our workbook section on this website] We use multiple mechanisms to introduce colours such as toys designed to teach colours and our cooking series, where things like fruit cutting offer a chance to associate colours with fruits. We also have several colours and the concept of the rainbow included in our phonics A-Z series. While it is important to introduce the concept of colours early, children will become self-reliant in developing their sense of colour through simple experience, once you have given them a good start, and then you can move on to other things to teach them.
As promised, a world on colour vision deficiency (or colour blindness)
People with colour vision deficiency find it difficult to identify and distinguish between certain colours. It's sometimes called being "colour blind", although total colour blindness (an inability to see any colour) is very rare. It’s generally genetic, passed on from parent to child but sometimes it can develop later in life. There is currently no cure for inherited colour vision deficiency, although most people are able to adapt and cope with it quite effectively. Generally, people with colour vision deficiency have difficulty distinguishing between shades of red, yellow and green. This is known as "red-green" colour vision deficiency. It is a common problem that affects around 1 in 12 men and about 1 in 200 women. They see these colours as much duller than they would appear to someone with normal vision. In rare cases, some people have trouble with blues, greens and yellows instead. This is known as "blue-yellow" colour vision deficiency.
Two of the main tests for colour vision deficiency are:
the Ishihara test: identifying numbers or shapes contained within images made up of different coloured dots or tracing a path laid out in the image.
colour arrangement, where one is asked to arrange coloured objects in order of their different shades
Colour vision deficiency can sometimes cause issues such as:
difficulty at school if colours are used to assist with learning or at work where colour is used in presentations etc.
problems with food, such as identifying if meat is fully cooked or whether or not fruit is ripe.
getting medications confused if they're not clearly labelled.
trouble identifying safety warnings and signs.
somewhat limited career choices – certain jobs, such as pilots, train drivers, electricians and air traffic controllers, often require accurate colour recognition.
It is, therefore, important to identify whether or not your child may have colour vision deficiency and to consult an expert to check and diagnose the condition. Generally, it is nothing to be overly concerned about so long as everyone who needs to be made aware of it, is. There are some obvious things you can do to manage this condition such as teaching the position of the red and green light in traffic lights and choosing clothes and toys that avoid mixing the colours your child cannot differentiate or see differently. Also, it may be helpful if children learn some common things of specific colours, like warning lights and signs, to aid their interactions with people and the world in general.
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