Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Colorblind?

For real, I'm wondering if Em is colorblind. I'd always wondered that when she was a toddler. It took her forever and a day to learn her colors. In fact, once she could actually distinguish them, she knew them but wouldn't tell me - she'd just get them ALL wrong. I mean, 100% of the time. That's when I realized she was pulling the wool over my eyes and wasn't really colorblind at all.

At least that's what I thought then. She aced her colors on a kindergarten entrance exam, although they actually only show you about 7 colors - all basic. She hates coloring and typically colors everything in either one or two colors or just colors everything the wrong color. Her art teacher has never been impressed with her seeming disinterest in art - matching colors, painting, etc. I knew she was not really into colors, but she is artistic...

So, today is hero day and the girls were supposed to wear red, white and blue to school. Em had on a pink shirt, so when we sent her to find a red one, she came back with an even pinker one! I asked her if she really thought it was red, and she held it up, shaking her head and said, "Well, it looks red to me!!" She was not kidding at all, even to the point of asking her sister what color it was, as if they were going to prove me wrong!!

Of course, this reminded me that lately, her coloring has improved a bit, at least on color choice. BUT, just the other day she was coloring in a picture and went to choose a sky color, she said, "Ah, Cornflower Blue, that will be the sky." I just realized it's the first time she's been able to read all the names of all the colors! and that's how she's choosing her crayons now. Very interesting.

My dad was colorblind, so I've always been in tune to the fact that not everyone sees what I see. I imagine for a child who is colorblind, art would be a challenge, coloring would seem a little pointless and for a child who is always concerned about doing something wrong, it makes even more sense that she might choose to not draw a picture if she thought someone would criticize it. It's all beginning to make more sense... intersting. Of course, I could be totally wrong, too! =)

UPDATE: So, I did one of those online quicky tests and this child passed with flying colors! LOL Anyway, she will always be a mystery!

2 comments:

Kathryn said...

Very interesting...that would definitely explain why she can take or leave coloring!

deanna said...

It would... but, I did one of those really quickly online colorblind tests and she passed with flying colors (pun intended!). She's faking me out again!! For what it's worth, I guess an eye exam in earnest would at least be warranted. I think she just doesn't like to be wrong, or at least told she is!