Colour blindness
The second, rarer, form is blue-yellow deficiency, which affects the ability to discern blue, green, and yellow.
The rarest form of colour vision deficiency is absolute colour blindness, when an individual sees only shades of grey.
There is no cure for any version of colour blindness, but corrective contact lenses or glasses can help make colour identification easier, though they are unhelpful for blue-yellow deficiency. People can adapt by learning position rather than colour, in traffic lights, for example, or by adjusting contrasts on iPhone or computer screens.
Many years ago, I had in my class of eight-year-olds, a very diligent, painstaking boy. His teachers in the nursery/pre-school class had initially been concerned that all his drawings and colouring were black. They feared that he had significant psychological problems. In fact, he was colour-blind and a much-loved, precious child. He said he wanted to be a pilot or an air traffic controller when he grew up. Obviously, that was not going to be a suitable career path for him.
He was a delightful boy, and I often wondered how his life developed. I really wanted to ask him what colours he could identify in monochrome drawings in books, but resisted the urge. It was not my place to investigate, and it might have distressed him to be questioned, but I have always pondered what version of colour blindness he had.
Ishihara colour plates are used to discern colour vision deficiency. These show numbers or shapes on a dot pattern background. There are more sophisticated versions to identify specifics.
Bear is colour blind and it's had a few impacts. We found out when he coloured his friend's face green when in fact their skin is brown and I got it confirmed at the opticians. He loved Geography at school but didn't take it because of all the colour charts. He threw the support teacher into a hissy fit when she realised that the colour blindness that I'd told her about meant that he couldn't play Uno properly (though I suspect that he played it up for laughs). And now he only wears black because at least he knows what the colour is. There are so many tiny pitfalls. Thank you for your kindness to that boy.
ReplyDeleteIt's difficult for people to understand when something so clear to them is difficult for others. Unthinking remarks can be hurtful.
DeleteWe had less options for enquiring and recognising different symptoms, we did the best we could, unlike now where help can be given to so many. A caring teacher was so important for every child, sadly not all teachers were so thoughtful, hopefully he has fond memories of you.
ReplyDeleteWe know so much more now than we did decades ago. The downside of that is that many people think they can diagnose and label at will.
ReplyDelete3 of my sons were color-weak, the red-blue type. To hear they argue about what color something is was quite funny! My oldest relies on his wife to coordinate his clothes. My second son worked in the White House Communication Agency, where he had to wire fiber optic, which meant many strands of colored wire. He trained himself to be able to "see" those colors, somehow. My fifth son isn't as bad with it as his older brothers, but different struggle in the early grades when instructed to color something a specific color. I identified his issue myself with this dot test, then talked to the school. My father, of course, was the hereditary link.
ReplyDeleteIt can be very difficult for young children, when so much early work uses colour. I would have loved to have heard the 'discussions' between your sons.
ReplyDeleteMy friend adopted a little boy from south america. He colored things in a most interesting way- green sky, orange earth- blue faces...We thought it may have been cultural but turns out the lad had color blindness of some sort. My husband did not realize that he was color blind until he joined the Navy. He was grateful for the uniform- no guess work there.
ReplyDeleteInteresting read, I never thought about how not being able to see colors could limit your choice of careers but it make sense, Wonder what he decided to do.
ReplyDeleteMy dad had the blue green confusion and we learned to translate whose is this green sweater into the actual blue color we could see. I worked with a guy who had wanted to fly in the military, but was knocked out early when he found he had red green blindness. But a friend's son has total color loss, just grayscale. He has to identify signals by position or context. I don't think he attempts electrical work.
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