AN INSIGHT TO COLOR BLINDNESS IN CHILDREN (CAUSES, SYMPTOMS AND SUPPORT)

Color blindness in children is a condition in which a child cannot see colors in the usual way. They cannot perceive colors like the way a normal person does. It doesn’t mean it’s an abnormality and that particular child needs our sympathy. Instead, they need our support to make them feel like normal individuals. It’s a deficiency that can be managed by taking certain supportive measures. This blog helps to understand all about colorblindness, its causes, symptoms, and how to provide support to children who have

1. WHAT IS COLORBLINDNESS IN CHILDREN?

Colorblindness also known as color vision deficiency in children is a state in which a child can’t see colors in a typical manner. It is otherwise called variety inadequacy. Partial blindness frequently happens when somebody can’t recognize specific tones. This generally occurs among greens and reds, and occasionally blues.

2. WHAT CAUSES COLORBLINDNESS?

Colorblindness is a genetic condition in which specific color-sensing pigments are mutated that help in perceiving different colors, as a result, lead to the development of visual weakness.

There are two kinds of light-sensing cells in the retina. They are called rods and cones. Rods are very sensitive to low light levels and only detect light and darkness. Cone cells distinguish variety and are concentrated close to the focal point of your vision. There are three sorts of cones that see tone: red, green, and blue.

When one or more of these cells are absent or not functioning well. Then it results in difficulty recognizing certain colors.

Later in life, it can be a result of,

• Any toxic effect of the drug
• Severe trauma to the eye
• Disease or metabolic disease
• Exposure to hazardous chemicals.

3. MYTHS VS FACTS ABOUT COLORBLINDNESS: –

Several myths and facts are related to this condition, and this occurs majorly due to insufficient knowledge and awareness of colorblindness in our society, few of them are listed below.

4. WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS?

Parents may only notice problems with the child when he/she is learning colors. However, Symptoms can range from mild to severe.

• Difficulty seeing colors and brightness of colors in the normal way.
• The inability to distinguish shades of similar colors happens mostly with red, green, and blue.
• Using wrong colors for the objects like coloring sky purple.
• Continuous complaints regarding distinguishing colors in faint light.
• Facing difficulty in identifying matching color objects in learning institutes.

5. WHO IS AT A RISK OF COLORBLINDNESS?

In children, boys are at much higher risk for being born with colorblindness than girls. One in ten boys is suffering from some sort of color vision deficiency.

Having certain conditions that can increase the risk of acquired color deficiency,

• Macular degeneration.
•  Diabetes.
• glaucoma.
• Parkinson’s disease.
• Alzheimer’s disease.
• Sickle cell anemia.
• Leukemia.

6. INFLUENCE ON LEARNING AND DAY-TO-DAY EXISTENCE IN A CHILD’S LIFE: –

A colorblind child can face a lot of difficulties in his/her daily life than a normal-sighted individual. Issues can arise in even the least difficult of exercises including picking and getting ready food, planting, sport, driving a vehicle, and choosing which garments to wear.

• Education: – In educational institutes because lack of awareness among teachers regarding vision deficiency in children. They suffer a lot, which require understanding information based on color. Various graphs, maps, and charts are used in different subjects which can be remarkably hard for visually challenged children to interpret easily.

Similarly, they find it difficult to coordinate classroom activities with their classmates which affects their confidence at an early age and has impacted their performance as well.

• Social interaction: – They face challenges in games, and playful activities that require color coordination as a result in most cases they are kept at the back step because they are unable to understand things easily which results in their isolation.
• Security of children: – The safety of such children is at stake if they are not properly educated because they find difficulty in distinguishing the colors of traffic lights and other security signals.

7. HOW TO SHOW SUPPORT TO COLORBLIND CHILDREN: –

Parents and teachers play an important role in supporting kids with color blindness. They can do this by creating an environment that fulfills their visual needs.

following are the steps to support your kids, so they can live a normal life.

• Regular eye check-ups: -Parents must ensure their kid’s eye health by making regular appointments with their health care professional for consistent monitoring of their visual weakness. Maintaining the follow-ups and taking useful tips for improving the situation.
• Management in the classroom: – School teachers and other staff must be aware of what to do and how to teach such students by providing them with every advanced essential that is required for their knowledge like providing learning material in high difference and avoiding giving color coding data.
• Use of technology and tools: – Specialized apps and tools are made to help children suffering from color blindness. They are very helpful and handy to use, in letting them understand things without creating confusion.
• Use of patterns and textures: – Different alternative methods must be acquired by parents to teach their children like the use of patterns and textures, shapes, or positions to convey information instead of using color-coded things.

1. CAN IT BE CURED?

There is no cure for genetic colorblindness but can be managed to reduce its impact on a child’s day-to-day life.

in recent years there has been advancement in technology dealing with this condition like the use of special types of color filters in glasses and contact lenses. Though they cannot cure colorblindness but can improve the vision by helping recognize kids between different colors.

But if your child develops colorblindness later in life due to any disease then treating and managing the disease can help resolve color vision deficiency.