color blindness?

[dreamer]

OK so eyes are starting to ...drive me bonkers?

ALl my sons life different optometrists and opthamologists have all had their own ideas and opionions etc on my sons vision. MOst have agreed he had convergence problems.....now solved due to him now being totally blind in his surgical eye.....and he used to have severe astigmatism, but it has self corrected over time....he now only has very very minor astigmatism. (and new glasses coming, mostly required as protection from penetrating injury to his remaining eye, but will correct the little bit of astigmatism, but if not needing glasses to protect eye, they would have skipped rxing glasses)
BUT all his life the eye people have always gone back and forth with his color vision. I never did understand why there was any question, I never understood how come the eye docs would not be able to say one way or another.....but they always said to me it was inconclusive if he had colorblindness or not. (yeesh) Until today. FINALLY an eye exam confirmed- he has red/green color defieciency AND blue. I understand 7-8% of males in our country have red/green color deficiency, less common for a person to have blue def.

But.....I am wondering if there is any issues to be addressed in a learning environment due to this? I am thinking no, not really......in a school setting it prolly won't ever be much of an issue? If I understand what I have read so far tonite, for the most part a child born with color deficiency usually self accomodates pretty much on their own along the way, for the most part? SO am I correct to assume it is not worth worrying about for anything academic? (altho the reality is even if I should worry, it prolly would do me no good here......)
Due to his one eyedness, we already accomodate for reduced peripheral vision....and no depth perception......but truth is he himself has adapted quite well to the vision loss. (he did continue to have vision prior to his first surgery in Nov and before his 2nd surgery in March, but lost the vision after the march surgery when they also removed his lens and cornea after once again trimming down his retina and macula and again reattaching them)

Seems children are amazingly resilient and adaptive....so I am thinking the color blindness is no big deal as far as school work?

 

[Sheila]

Kids are resilient. I marvel at my son.

Color blindedness can cause problems in school. "What Teachers, School Nurses, and Parents, Should Know About Being Colorblind" by Dr. Terrace L. Waggoner at http://colorvisiontesting.com/color4.htm has info that may be helpful for you.

http://www.vischeck.com/daltonize/ is a simulation of red/green color blindedness.

I recall an instance where one member posted that her son's evaluation at school had to be redone because one of the tests performed was color sensitive and her son was colorblind.

My son is red/green colorblind. An excerpt from a complaint to the sd: "difficult child failed a color-blinded test at school and was accused of lying about his misidentification of colors. The Occupational Therapist (OT) report stated, "It became clear that difficult child was not being honest in claiming that his vision was blurry or in naming correctly the colors and numbers of fingers he could see. The school counselor and the nurse spoke with difficult child about being honest and doing his best work on the Occupational Therapist (OT) evaluation." The fact was that difficult child had complained previously about intermittent blurry vision. The fact is that he failed the color-blind test that I gave him on the computer. The fact is that I responded to this discovery by taking difficult child to a Pediatric Opthamologist. The fact is that difficult child was diagnosed with Dichromat aka known as red/green colorblindness. The fact is that all involved ....still owe my son an apology." It still makes my blood boil.

 

[dreamer]

thank you! I am not sure why I was unable to wrap my mind around this whole thing last nite.
I guess it explains the strange colors my son uses on his people and animals.

I did find some examples while I was searching online last nite. The one that hit me most was 4 maps, all looked very different to me, but my son said no, they were all the same to him.

 

[susiestar]

thank you is color blind. Color blind is a SPECTRUM, not a totality. I know this because I (female) am a little bit red/green color blind. I have some genetic mutation and this is part of it. Very few docs know that you can be partly colorblind, or that colorblindness is not a static issue. The same color will represent itself differently at different times. My dad is red/green color blind also.

Last year we told thank you's teacher he was red/green colorblind. She didn't believe it, but at the holidays he colored a gingerbreadman bright green! She met us afterschool and said "Did you know he is colorblind?" I laughed. She was a first-year teacher, and didn't realize that I really knew what I was talking about. It was rather funny, but then he was never penalized for not "getting" a color right.

Hugs,

Susie

 

[dreamer]

I just had a hard time last nite wondering if there would be school related issues related to it.....
I found some very intersting things online- some about videogaming and difficulties....some about maps.....it was.....a learning experience, LOL.

I never did understand why previous eye docs had such strange "professional opinions" on my sons colorblindness.....they would say it was "inconclusive" ....but yesterday the eye doctor said nope not inconclusive at all.total red'green and also blue.

His teachers thru the years DID penalize him for not learning his colors as fast as they thought he should.....and for not coloring things the colors they told him to color them......but now he is in middle school, I just was not sure how much it might be an issue. Seems more of an issue than I realized last nite.....but, not a humongous issue in the big picture of his life. - just another little stumbling block for us to stub our toe on from time to time, maybe? One of those things where I think gosh, I wish this weren't so.....
Losing the sight in his one eye REALLY devastated me at first.....but..truth is it really is not quite the horribly terrible thing it seemed at the moment. The good news is my son takes it all in stride, and with the color, well, he never knew any other way, anywyay.

But I will now know to be a little more aware.....
I suppose whatever it is he sees, how he sees, by now he has already figured out well, thats this color, no matter what it looks like to him.....(yes, unless things are similar or side by side or whatever....)
and when he thinks "I" am goofy cuz I see something somewhere that he can;t see, LOL......I will hafta remember oh gosh, maybe he really can't see it. Just like I hafta stop and remember he cannot see 3 D.