Infants and Toddlers Can't Recognize Colors? (Article)

[KL]

Hi all,

Just came across this article about how toddlers can find it difficult to name colors:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-johnny-name-colors

This was a bit puzzling to me because I seem to remember Felicity could name her colors very early on without any problems (before one, I think, but can't be sure).

Do you remember when your child could name colors?

[Korrale4kq]

Hmm. Interesting. James could point to or sign most of his colors by 18 months. He had difficulty if I gave him orange and red, or blue and green; because they were so similar to each other.  But if there was blue and red or otherncolors with great variance he had no issues.
By 2.5 he can name and point to all his basic colors, including pink, with the exception of grey. The latter is hit and miss.
However, I did introduce colors with a Montessori-esque approach  lot of the time by saying' "this is blue" and laying down a blue card.

I am boggled to read about 4-6 year olds struggling with colors.

[Skylark]

Yes, Evangeline was able to name about 10 colors, at least, around 12 months, may be a bit earlier.

In fact I remember we had a discussion here on the Forum, where DadDude mentioned that he read an article that children who can recognize some "fringe" or "shade" colors early, like purple, etc, have outstanding abilities, I remember testing my daughter and she was naming pink, purple, red and different shades with ease at that age, somewhere between 12 and 18 months...

We also had a discussion with other parents at that point and it did not seem uncommon for very young children to have a good recognition of shades and colors...

Perhaps there is also a difference between children who were getting right brain/EL activities early and mainstream... Also what is guarantee that those parents that don't communicate much with their babies and toddlers ( because they think that babies don't understand much and thus there is no point of talking to them much less teaching/explaining things to them) even give their babies/toddlers a chance to learn colors, naming them, etc?

[CVMomma]

I don't really remember what exact age my daughter was when she learned her colors, but I know she was younger than 18 months.  She learned them with flashcards that had colors on one side and the word on the other. They were her favorite flashcards for a while!  She wouldn't say any of the color words until we started using LR, but before that, I could lay down all 9 of the color cards in random order and ask her to show me the blue or whatever color.  Then we would shuffle a bit and she would point to whatever other color I asked her to.  Unless, of course, she felt like being silly.  Then she would point to a wrong one with a great twinkle in her eye and quite a chuckle, as if to say, "I pulled a fast one on Momma!"    She could even point to the correct one when they were all on the word side of the card.   Maybe just having that extra fact to memorize with it helps the early learners remember their colors, just like learning a corresponding sign helps kids remember new words more easily. 

Perhaps there is also a difference between children who were getting right brain/EL activities early and mainstream...

It would be kind of interesting to do this study with kids who are more involved in right brained early learning.  Maybe that is the reason so many of our kids seem to be ahead of the game.

[Mela Bala]

My son has know alot of colors well before the age of 1.  He is now identifying differents shades such as sea green, lilac, midnight blue, teal, emerald etc.  He has learned them with the BrillKids and the Your Baby Can Discover programs.  He loves going to the Indian clothing stores with me because they have a huge variety of vibrant colors.

[mybabyian]

I realized after I read the article a bit closer they are not saying that young kids can't learn colors but that when you use the color word before the object name as in "red balloon" like we do in English it somehow trips up the child.  Whereas in other languages like in Spanish the color word would come after the object "balloon red."  They suggest you tell them, "The balloon is red."

I guess if you use flash cards or LR than you won't have that problem because it just says "red".   I have known that my son knows his colors since he was about 18 months when he became totally obsessed with colors.  We speak Spanish but I think it has more to do with that we played games with colored circles.  All the circles were the same except for their colors so I would just say "red" like you would with a flash card.

What surprises me is supposedly the parents say their kids know their colors pat and then are shocked when they "fail" the color test.  I can see where the parent might think the child knows his colors if for example he says "yellow ball" to a ball that you have that is yellow.  Maybe he doesn't really know what yellow is just that everyone calls that particular ball yellow.  My son names the color of everything he sees so I don't think that is the case for us.  One day his uncle came out wearing a blue shirt and he started calling him blue uncle.   He was wearing a green shirt and he called himself green Ian.   

[LDSMom]

My son definitely knew colors before 18 months - the first color he could say and identify was purple. I think you are on to something mybabyian - we are teaching kids with the simple word Red or Blue and the associated color. We watched YBCR starting at 14 months, which I credit for teaching him a LOT of stuff, including colors. I also did many "color" activities with him such as sorting out blue, white, yellow, green objects into different bowls and putting away all the purple balls first, then the blue balls, etc.

[Frukc]

I started to teach colors to my girl when she was 18 months old; 11 colors including pink and grey. She learned to name all of  them within few weeks.

typically, kids cannot learn colors if they do not understand what is the color. parents show her red ball and green pencil and say "this is red". than, kid cannot understand what is "red" - shape, material etc.

[celiacelia226]

Also said that children learn to identify colors, mostly in a year and a half, awesome! But we need to protect the baby's eyes.

[A_BC]

Just another proof that babies and toddlers can recognize colors: I remember that my son could identify and name the color "blue" (in french)  at the age of 7 months. He could name all the basic colors in 3 languages at 15 months. Now he is 20 mo, and we are studying the different shades of colors, he loves "hunter green" and "cyan"

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