Color is something many of us take for granted in our lives. But, what if you suddenly lost your ability to see the world in color? Unfortunately, for many children in the US, a life without color isn’t just hypothetical – it’s very real. It’s estimated that there are 300 million color blind people in the world, with 8% of men and 0.5% of women being affected. This equates to 1 in 8 men and 1 in 200 women suffering from the visual ailment. In most cases, color blindness doesn’t just happen overnight; it’s something we are born with. Thankfully due to this, you can usually find free children’s eye tests to rule out or discover color blindness early on in your child’s life.
Color blind children can often suffer at school from their impairment. Teachers use color throughout their classes to provide contrast, highlight teaching points, and as a means of classification – without the proper ability to see colors, these points can be lost to those children and could affect their grades. The problem is that many teachers, parents, and even the children themselves, can’t tell that they are color blind. This is why it’s vital to take your son or daughter for a children’s eye exam.
Not only does the inability to see color affect learning, but it can also alter a child’s entire life. Imagine not knowing what your eye color looks like, or not being able to see all the colors of the Christmas lights on your tree. Sports would be near impossible to play if you can’t distinguish between team kits, which could be a very isolating experience for a child to face. Even dressing and creating your sense of style could prove tough for color blind kids, as they can’t see what colors match and go together.
There are three categories of color blindness: blue-yellow, red-green, and total color blindness. Each category has several different forms of color blindness, but the symptoms are similar. Redgreen blindness is the most common of the three categories and is where reds, greens, and oranges are hard to distinguish. Blue-yellow color blindness is quite rare and can make distinguishing blue from green and yellow from violet quite difficult. Total color blindness is the rarest of all the color impairments, and is where the world is seen completely in black and white.
Since there are so many different variations of color vision deficiencies, the only way to be sure if your child has an issue with color and vision is to get a kid’s eye exam. Try to take your child for an eye test specifically for kids, as it can be a stressful and frightening experience. Having a professional that is used to working with children should help to put your child more at ease. – At Vizavance we provide preliminary eye testing for your children in Oklahoma. We offer eye testing in Schools and by appointment. Call today for more information.
