Color blindness in a child as an inability to recognize colors and how to define it

2023 Author: Alfred Shackley | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 13:14

Among ophthalmic diseases, there is an inability to distinguish one or more colors. Many parents are interested in how to determine color blindness in a child, and this is really important. If you recognize the ailment from childhood, parents will be able to take care of ensuring the baby's full development, taking into account this feature.

The essence of the disease

It is known in ophthalmology not only as color blindness, but has a second name - color blindness.

The structure of the eye is such that in the central part of the retina there are light-sensitive receptors, which are nerve cells that contain pigments.

The latter can be in a single copy, or in several:

• Rhodopsin;
• Erythrolab;
• Chlorolab.

In the absence of visual impairment associated with the inability to identify colors, all these pigments are present in full. Otherwise, some pigment is missing, less often pigments are absent altogether.

The disease in most cases is congenital, and the only reason for this is heredity.

Much less often (less than 5% of cases) color blindness is acquired, which can occur as a result of various eye diseases, injuries suffered on the organs of vision of operations, taking certain medications (as a rule, we are talking either about the use of heavy medications or about their uncontrolled use).

Many have heard the phrase that women do not suffer from color blindness. There is a large percentage of truth in this statement - they rarely encounter this ailment, and this scanty percentage of cases mainly includes situations of an acquired ailment. In extremely rare cases, a girl can take the gene for this disease if both mom and dad are carriers.

In this case, a woman can be a carrier of the color blindness gene, which she passes on to her son. Such situations are faced by 50% of carriers of this gene.

Types of disease

What type of color blindness belongs to depends on what colors and shades of their range do not differ by the child. When sick, children do not distinguish one or more basic colors - green, blue, red.

The following types of disease are distinguished:

• Protanopia. With her, the child does not have the ability to distinguish between green and red;
• Deuteranopia. The type of disease implies the inability of the child to distinguish between green and its shades and the blue range;
• Tritanopia. This is a rare type of ailment in which color blindness extends to the blue-violet range. Experts note that with this type of anomaly at twilight, the patient has problems with recognizing objects. This feature is called night blindness.

Depending on how many ranges the patient does not distinguish, the following types of ailment are distinguished:

• Achromasia. This type of disease is the most serious, since small patients with it perceive the world in almost black and white color. At the same time, ophthalmologists note an interesting fact - in young patients with this type of disease, no pathologies, defects of the retina are observed;
• Most often, dichromasia occurs, in which only one color range out of three is not recognized. In this case, it is much easier for a baby to adapt to recognizing colors by means of an associative row;
• With monochromation, a small patient recognizes only one color range out of three.

Speaking about the difference between acquired and congenital forms of the disease, it is worth saying that acquired color blindness has its own differences:

• The disease extends only to one eye - the one that was affected, while in the congenital form of the disease it spreads to both eyes;
• Children with the acquired appearance of the phenomenon do not distinguish between yellow and blue.

How to define an ailment?

First, you need to understand why you need it? If a child has color blindness, he will not be able to fully perceive the information coming from the outside world, at least if you do not help him with this.

There is also a more serious problem - the behavior and feelings of the baby in society. Special attention should be paid to the fact that he may not distinguish between the colors of a traffic light with all the ensuing consequences.

Until children have the ability to recognize, comprehend and vocalize what colors they see, it is impossible to understand whether they have color blindness.

In this regard, it is possible to determine the presence or absence of a problem no earlier than 3 years of age of the child.

How to determine the presence of a phenomenon?

• The first signs of the disease can be detected simply by observing the baby. In particular, his drawings can tell a lot. If, for example, he depicts certain objects, phenomena with colors that are far from their real colors, this is the first "bell" that you need to find out if there is a disease. To rule out a mistake, ask the child leading questions. For example, if he painted red grass, ask him if he imagines it this way, if he saw it in that color on a walk. If the baby immediately corrects himself, picks up a pencil of the desired tone, this is a sign that color blindness is absent;
• When children already have the ability to name colors, he should not confuse them. You can make a "discount" on exceptions in the form of random errors, but they should not be systematically confused. It also happens that knowing the color of certain objects (for example, from you), the baby names them, but in practice it turns out that he cannot distinguish one or another of them. If this happens, this is another reason to think about whether the child has color blindness;
• To determine the presence of the disease, you can use this technique. Place two candies near the child (they should be the same size and taste) with different colors. One of them should be in a bright wrapper, and the other in gray or black. Invite your baby to choose one of them. Taking into account the psychology of children, they always, without hesitation, choose bright objects. If a baby thinks about it, and then chooses an object at random, there is reason to believe that color blindness is to blame. When conducting such an experiment, the factor of chance and error is not excluded, so spend it for several days in a row, record the results, and if a random choice, which results in a candy in an unsightly wrapper, is a regularity, you should contact an ophthalmologist.

Experts determine color blindness using special tables. In particular, these are Rabkin tables, which depict points of the same brightness, but different colors and diameters. In such tables, an image is encrypted that a baby who does not suffer from this disease recognizes by color. If the disease is present, the dots shown in the figures will look like a collection of spots to it.

Treatment

Some 10 years ago, the answer to the question of whether it is possible at least from a medical point of view to help little patients suffering from color blindness, the answer of ophthalmologists was categorical - no.

But the long-term work of scientists on this issue was not in vain, and today the hope dawns that in the near future the treatment of children from this ailment will be quite possible.

Experimental operations have already been carried out to implant the missing gene in the retina, and they were successful. Nevertheless, today such operations are not carried out everywhere.

For milder forms of the disease, glasses with special lenses can be used to help the baby receive information about the world around him.

What to do?

Due to the fact that medicine today can not significantly help children with color blindness, a large role is assigned to parents. They must help their child adapt.

Experts give such advice on this matter:

• First of all, don't panic and despair. This phenomenon can reasonably be considered not a disease, but a feature of the child. It does not indicate mental retardation, it is not a sign of serious visual impairment. A kid with such a feature is absolutely normal, of which it is imperative to assure him and those around him who, perhaps, do not understand this;
• When a baby confuses colors, there is no need to correct mistakes - this will do nothing but irritate him;
• Unobtrusively help your toddler choose clothes. The best option is to provide the child with a wardrobe in which all things are successfully combined with each other;
• When studying and describing objects, phenomena, do not focus on colors. Pay more attention to other signs and details. For example, the grass is not only green, but also velvety, fragrant, thick;
• Kindergarten teachers, and then teachers at school, must be notified of the special features of the baby. This will allow them to find an individual approach to his education and training.

Everything that a child needs to know about how to lead an absolutely normal life and develop successfully can be given by parents and teachers in kindergarten, school, so despair, and even more so to show despair to the child, is by no means worth it.