Color blind children: color blindness in children

Color blindness is a genetic disorder in which people who suffer from it cannot distinguish colors well. It affects men to a greater extent than women and this reason is due to the fact that it is a hereditary condition that is transmitted through the recessive gene of the x chromosome, and it is that although women are the carriers they rarely suffer from it.

WHAT IS COLOR BLINDNESS?

To begin with, it is important that you know the two most important components of the eye with respect to color blindness. And it is that our eye is made up of photoreceptors that are: rods and cones. The rods are the ones that make us see in black and white, while the cones are the ones that make our eye detect colors, and we have 3 types in each eye that are red, green and blue. Thanks to these we can distinguish millions of shades of the same color.

The problem comes when our eye does not have any of these photoreceptors, which is then when it is difficult for us to distinguish between different shades, and this gives rise to what is known as color blindness and although it is impossible to cure if it can be detected in time it will be a great benefit for the color blind.

HOW TO DETECT IF CHILDREN ARE COLOR BLIND?

The most common way to help detect if our children suffer from this hereditary alteration is when they begin to learn colors , this is where we can find out if our child has a vision problem.

The way to tell is if, for example, we see that our son is constantly confused about colors or if he does not name them well. It must be borne in mind that if the child is born colorblind, he will perceive that reality as his own , since it will be totally normal not to make a difference between one color or another. So it will be necessary to explain the colors that are confusing. If he tells you the colors normally and knows how to differentiate them well, there is no problem. Although few children have color blindness, it is true that many times as there are different degrees of color blindness this can go unnoticed and never know that you have this visual defect.

Obviously it is the parents who detect this disorder in their children , to take them to the ophthalmologist, who has the last word when it comes to diagnosing whether our child is color blind or not. The exam to which you will be subjected will be the Ishihara color test, which is a table in which there are different geometric figures and numbers with different colors and through it the ophthalmologist will draw up his final verdict.

The only problem that a child who is color blind may have, apart from having difficulty differentiating certain colors, is when choosing their professional future, and that is that there will be certain careers that they still have to refrain from choosing .

TYPES OF COLOR BLINDNESS

1.Achromatopsia : Those who suffer from this type of color blindness are unable to differentiate any color. That is, they would only be able to see in black and white.

2. Monochromats : Which are those for whom only one cone works. Therefore, they would only see in blue, if the cone of that color works, in green, if, like the previous one, only the cone of this color works and red, if in the same case as in the previous ones, the red cone works. .

3. Anomalous trichromats : The three cones work for the color-blind person, but one of them does not do well at all, which causes them not to distinguish the tones very well.

4. Deuteranopia : Does not distinguish well between the colors red and green with purple.

5. Protanopia : It is difficult for him to distinguish between blue and red with green.

6. Tritanopia : Has difficulty distinguishing between yellow and blue with green.