What Color is Your World?

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You don’t realize just how much color is in your world until you live with a (partially) color blind child.

To be honest, I’m still changing my world. I was reminded of that today when I sent my 8 year old to find greenish file folders. Last minute I remembered he won’t find them. I amended my directions to find greenish or brown file folders.

It all started when he was 6 and the pediatrician had this little book with circles of color and shapes and numbers within them. He did great for the first few pages and that was it.  The rest were solid color to him.

I remember it well. There was no devastation. It was very matter of fact. Ok, so he can’t see all his colors. The ensuing trip to the  eye doctor didn’t really clarify anything. With his age they didn’t want to label him.

We kind of let it go and except for the odd moments it hasn’t really affected life. See, give him a red crayon and it is red. Show him green and it’s green. When you get into olive shades it gets a little funny. It is all in the shading for him. His eyes just don’t separate the colors when they are mixed together.He can see a rainbow, he can’t see the green check mark high lighted in blue.

Recently he had his sight and hearing test for school. I didn’t think about it until they called me back to talk about his sight and asked me if I knew he was color blind. It really made it seem so final. This is something he is stuck with forever. He can’t be “whatever he wants to be”. There’s no cure, no fix. He will always be somewhat limited. His world lacks some of the subtle “oomph” shading adds to our world.

The other day I caught myself yelling at him for “not seeing what’s right in front of his face”. I feel bad. Sometimes he really can’t. Sometimes I get so frustrated when I send him for something and it was in plain sight….to me. To him, sometimes those colors blend together and he really can’t see it. He doesn’t know what he is missing but I do and it makes me sad sometimes.

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