There are over three million people in the UK that are colour blind. This means they find it difficult to differentiate between certain colours and often get colours wrong.
But spotting the signs in children who are colour blind can be tricky. According to experts, children learn by association and "guess" certain colours correctly.
For instance, if a child learns that police lights are blue, when they see other items that are the same colour through their eyes, they will identify them as blue too, even though they cannot see them as the true blue that they are.
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Optometric consultant John Dreyer, at Contactlenses.co.uk has detailed the four main different types of colour blindness and how to spot the unusual signs that you, or your child, is colour blind.
What is colour blindness?
According to Dr Dreyer, humans hold three colour cones that sense and interpret red, green and blue. Combining these cells ensures that the brain can interpret thousands of colours.
There are four different types of colour blindness:
Monochromatism
Monochromatism colour blindness occurs when no cones, or just one, is functioning. A person with monochromatism colour blindness can only identify black, white and grey.
Trichromacy
This is the rarest form of colour blindness. Those that suffer with trichromacy find it hard to differentiate between blue and green as well as yellow and red
Anomalous trichromacy
This is the most common type of colour blindness. Those with this type have an almost totally absent perception of red, green and blue due to the cone that is sensitive to blue light not functioning correctly.
Dichromacy
Dichromatism refers to a colour blindness where only two cones function correctly. those that are colour dichromatism blind cannot interpret greens. Protanopia Dichromatism means they are unable to see red. Both deficiencies are very similar as their cones overlap.
The unusual signs that indicate you or your child is colour blind
If a child frequently wants to touch or smell their food before eating, this could be a sign that they are trying to utilise their other senses to overcompensate for not being able to see their foods true colour.
A child who is colour blind often complains of a headache when looking at red and green colour combinations.
Frequently using the wrong colour when drawing a specific object for instance, red leaves on trees instead of green, or a green post-box instead of red
A resistance to/or a limited attention span when colouring or painting.
Frequently losing toys when they are dropped onto certain surfaces. For instance, if a toy is dropped onto green grass, a child that is colour blind may have a problem identifying it.
Brown and red can look the same to children that are colour blind. Therefore, they can be ‘put off’ by chocolate when it’s melted as it resembles the likes of blood.
If you believe that your child is showing signs of colour blindness, an optician can perform an Ishihara colour test. This will detect colour blindness and determine next steps.
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