Contents
The teacher put the chip in the ear to the parents of Bastien, 5, and the ophthalmologist confirmed the diagnosis: their son is color blind. “It is a congenital and hereditary disorder of color vision, which affects 4% of the population and mainly boys, some cones in the retina being absent or altered”, explains Dr. Zwillinger, ophthalmologist.
Testimony of Vincent, 30 years old: “It gives us funny situations! “
“My sisters admired magnificent red roses in the garden, they said… but I did not see them !!! For me, they were green, like the lawn! Just as they were talking about a red Austin that our parents kept for years… For me, it was green! “
Color blind, the child has a very personal color vision
In principle, the child does not see red, which he confuses with green. “If you put a red apple and a green apple in front of him, he will have a hard time distinguishing them even if they are not exactly the same shade,” says Dr. Zwillinger. Blue-yellow confusion can also exist if, for example, the blue cone of the eye is affected. Finally, in rare cases, the child does not distinguish any color. “It is achromatic because the three major cones – red, green and blue – are affected,” she says. But most of the time, the child does not see less colors, he simply has his own visual palette. “Color blind people see colors that are imperceptible to us, they do not have the same nuance”, reveals the ophthalmologist.
Tests to detect color blindness
If, in class, our schoolboy makes the wrong marker or the color of the sticker, the teacher should quickly notice it and bring it back to us. In addition, recalls Dr. Zwillinger: “A consultation with an ophthalmologist is planned for the 6 years of the child, systematically including a red-green screening test. If color blindness is suspected, an Ishihara test will then be performed, then confirmed by another benchmark test – the desaturated 15 Hue – to assess the distinction between the different axes of color vision.
Once the diagnosis of color blindness is made, what do we do?
“Color blindness is neither a disease nor a handicap, because it does not cause any specific problem in terms of visual functions, and children with little color blindness live very well with it. They simply grow up with their own color vision, ”reassures the ophthalmologist. And no certified treatment exists to correct this vision disorder. On the other hand, the child will not be able to become an airline pilot, and if he dreams of becoming an electrician or military (professions involving a good mastery of colors), he will have to take a more specific test in adulthood to be assessed. at the professional level. For the time being, it is important to warn your teacher, with the medical certificate attesting to the diagnosis provided by the ophthalmologist, so as not to risk placing the student in a situation of failure during sequences involving colors. A little tip to help him find his way around his pens: stick small labels with the name of the colors on each!