Children who are colorblind face many challenges and have special educational needs in order to be successful. Most color-deficient children can indentify pure, primary colors. However, it’s the different shades and tints that can cause them problems. Color-deficient children may consider red, orange, yellow and green all names for the same hue. Children could also believe the same about the colors violet, lavender, purple and blue.
Some of the most commonly confused color combos are pink/gray, orange/red, white/green, green/brown, blue green/gray, green/yellow, brown/maroon and beige/green. Also hard to differentiate are pastels and muted tones.
If a parent, teacher or school nurse suspects a child may have a color-deficiency be patient and insist on the child being screened for color blindness. What may appear as a child not trying or panicking when it comes to certain activities could actually mean they have a color-deficiency. It can’t be stressed enough, insist on color vision testing.
In the meantime, and going forward here are some tips on how to help a colorblind child in the classroom.
Source: School Nurse News, March 2009 Issue
