Is my 4 yr old colorblind?

Question

My 4 yr old daughter cannot identify red, green, or orange 90% of the time. (She can get all other colors majority of time.)

Is there a form of colorblindness where she could not identify those 3 colors, but she could see the rest? I am trying to figure out if this is "laziness" in learning colors, or something else.

I may be a carrier, but my husband is not colorblind. Info I've found online seems conflicting. Any advice or comments if you have this would be appreciated!

Answer 1

I would take her in to the Optometrist and have them do a few tests on her to check to see if she is color blind. Color blind can be red-green deficient, blue-yellow etc. I myself have a degree of red-green deficiency, it's not that uncommon. And the testing is really simple.

Answer 2

may be she dosnt know her colors

Answer 3

Well, as a 4 year old, she could just be slow in learning her colors, but the specific colors you mentioned are ones that give people with colorblindness a difficult time, so there's a good chance that could be it.

Take her to an eye doctor (or ask her pediatrician, some of them are willing to do it too) and ask for a color blindness test.  It's very simple - usually they just have the child look at pictures made of different color dots - the background is one color, and the shape is another color.  If the child can see the shape, she's good, if not, she may be colorblind.  I'm not a doc, so I'm not sure what the criteria for colorblindness is at the end of this test, but the test is very simple and can't hurt to give it a shot! =) Good luck!

Answer 4

I don't personally think she has colorblindness or is just lazy, when my son started preschool when he was 4 he could not name 4 or 6 colors and as the year progress and they worked with the colors more he slowly started to reconginze them and could name them without a problem by the end of the year........I think you just need to give her time, maybe do some fun projects using just those colors, or when you are out mention items you see with those colors, keep it fun and simple and do stress about it just yet, the more stressed you become so will she, it will all be ok

Answer 5

Colourblindness usually involves difficulty extinguishing between just two colours; red and green. You are correct to assume your daughter may very well be colourblind and it's certainly time to ask for a professional opinion.

I live in the UK (where health care is free), so I don't know how things will work out for with insurance and such. I've came across many Americans (which I presume you are) on here who express concerns over not being able to afford a check-up or not being covered for certain things. If this is at all a problem for you, simply alerting present and future schools of the problem should cover any difficulty it may cause your child. Naturally though, if an expert is available then that's the way to go.

***EDIT***

I gave the post above a thumbs up but now I regret doing so. I gave the reply my respect as it was advice given from experience. However, I think it's important to note that it's the colours RED, GREEN and ORANGE that are being consistently unrecognized. This is the most common form of colourblindness, and since the child is having little problem with the rest of the spectrum, I am almost certain that your daughter is colourblind (based only on your description, of-course).