# What age do toddlers recognize colors?



## thaler_19 (Jan 19, 2007)

My dd is 21 months and still does not recognize colors. We always try to focus on colors of clothes, toys, etc. When we ask what color something is she will obviously just guess (she knows all of the words for the colors). She is talking sentences in English and also knows some Spanish and German words, so I do not think it is a communication issue. Could this be some sort of color blind problem (we have no history on either side of the family)? Does anyone know at what age I should become concerned about this? Thanks for your help.


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## ani'smommy (Nov 29, 2005)

DD is 26 months and she doesn't know all of her colors. She thinks most colors are yellow, but I think it's just becuase she thinks yellow if fun to say.


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## mommy2abigail (Aug 20, 2005)

Funny, my dd (22 m) thinks all colors are yellow too! She started saying yellow to her 'colors' (what she calls crayons, markers, pens, ect) when she was about 21 months old. I dont focus on teaching her the colors or anything for that matter, she'll get it soon enough, yk? If she holds a red crayon out to me and says yellow? in a question form, I usually say, say something like really? It looks red to me! But if she doesn't ask me, and is just stating that the blue one is yellow, I dont correct her. There was a thread on here not so long ago about correcting toddlers and it made me start thinking about all the times that I correct dd. Even in the name of 'teaching' her, it must be frustrating to her to be 'wrong' all the time. So I just let most things go. Unless she is asking me of course.


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## Llyra (Jan 16, 2005)

For DD, everything was "blue" for ages. She's 29 months today, and she's just starting to reliably know most colors. She still mixes up blue and green, but mostly she's got them straight. They figure it out when they're ready and interested. Sounds like your DD is doing GREAT with her language, so I wouldnt' worry about it.

If you worry about color blindness, you might try activities to see if she can match colors without knowing their names, like show her a green block and ask her to find the other one that's the same. You'll have to model and demonstrate a whole bunch what you mean by "the same," but if she can match colors that way, then she can see them clearly. She'll get the names of them when she's ready.


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## lindberg99 (Apr 23, 2003)

It's pretty rare for a girl to be color blind so I'd doubt it was that unless you are color blind.

I guess I'd be concerned if she still doesn't know her colors when she is about kindergarten age (5-ish).


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## Grace and Granola (Oct 15, 2005)

We just discovered that ds, 17 months, knows some colors. We hadn't been working at it at all, besides just mentioning the colors of some things. He doesn't say the words, but can pick out things of a certain color.

I'm wondering....if you ask "Where is the red crayon?" Will she pick it out or is it just that she doesn't name the colors herself?

I had read several threads about color knowledge and it seems that there is quite a range on this topic...anywhere from 14 months up to 4 years. I wouldn't worry just yet!


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## Buddhamom (Jan 16, 2007)

Hmm, not sure, Drihan knew five colors at 18 mo.


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## lactivist (Jun 14, 2005)

My 22 month old knows a few colors but usually calls yellow white and lots of things are blue. I think age three is around the time that they are "supposed" to know all their colors.
Wendi


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## AllyRae (Dec 10, 2003)

Brandon knew his at 22 months old, but I think the average age is between 3 and 4. He was behind on some other stuff though--his "thing" is naming stuff, so he could name colors early.


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## chinaKat (Aug 6, 2005)

I don't remember for sure, but I know blue ('boo') was one of DD's earlier words -- it's on a list I made back when she only knew about 25-30 words (maybe around 18 mos? I'm terrible at tracking this stuff!!).

She didn't start talking a LOT until later -- 22-23 mos was a humongous language explosion -- when she did she had the colors right away, so I think she was aware of them but just couldn't/wouldn't say them earlier.

But some of her friends are much older than that and they don't accurately ID colors all the time.

I think it's a very different thing with different kids. Like others have said, I wouldn't sweat it until a lot older.


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## pookel (May 6, 2006)

Mine knows his pretty well now (at 22 mos) but he went through a phase where everything was "blue."

I am a little worried about his color vision, though, because the two he mixes up most often are red and green (which would be the most common form of colorblindness). But I don't think I'll really know for sure until he's older and I know he's not just confusing the words.

When we had his most recent developmental checkup, they said there's nothing to worry about as long as they know some colors by 3-4!


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## monamcmona (Apr 21, 2005)

dd (28 months) and knows the primary colors. Nothing we focused on, but we named all her care bears (and she has a lot), the color they are. like sleepy time bear is 'blue bear', and funshine bear is 'yellow bear', etc.


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## Calidris (Apr 17, 2004)

Colour blindness in girls is very rare (and needs at least the father to be colour blind, and the mother to have it in her family) but it also generally only includes confusing 2 colours (usually red and green).
DD picked it up just after 2, and she was fairly early. Really, it is one of the things on many preschool curricula, which suggests that some children don't get it til 3 or more, so it is way too early to worry yet.

Also colours are an abstract concept, which is much harder to wrap your brain around at that age. If you show her an apple, then tell her it is an apple, she will know in future that things that look like that are apples.
But if you show her red, one day she will see a shirt, another an apple, another a piece of paper. That is a bit hard to figure out at first.


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## sbgrace (Sep 22, 2004)

This issue comes up frequently on here. I was told by experts not to worry until my son was ready for kindergarten or if he couldn't match up colors by age 2 (or maybe it was 2.5). The matching is for color blindness actually. Some kids get this early (like 18 months), many around 2 to 2.5, and some older. Age really doesn't mean anything (intelligence or otherwise). Some kids just are more interested younger. One of my guys was very early (before 18 months), the other called everything pink







until I got concerned enough I contacted experts! Both know all their colors at 3 but I wouldn't/shouldn't have worried even if it still wasn't here for guy number two. By the way, my early color learner (and learned all his letters too by that age) is on the autism spectrum. Don't stress and don't push--it really, really, doesn't matter!


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## PiePie (Oct 2, 2006)

i have read 24 months as the earliest. so chill!!


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## NannyL (Oct 11, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Calidris* 
Also colours are an abstract concept, which is much harder to wrap your brain around at that age. If you show her an apple, then tell her it is an apple, she will know in future that things that look like that are apples.
But if you show her red, one day she will see a shirt, another an apple, another a piece of paper. That is a bit hard to figure out at first.









:
For the girl I nanny for, it took quite a while for her to "get" the concept of different colors. When she did, learning the actual color names was a snap for her. (Though even at 3.5 she and I still fight over some shades of colors!







) Also, she speaks/understands multiple languages, and it was definitely a concept issue, because as soon as she got it, she could tell us the correct color in every language she speaks.


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## teachma (Dec 20, 2002)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *pookel* 
I am a little worried about his color vision, though, because the two he mixes up most often are red and green (which would be the most common form of colorblindness). But I don't think I'll really know for sure until he's older and I know he's not just confusing the words.

My son, who is verbally gifted and comprehended concepts of all kinds from a very young age, also mixed up green and red for a super long time. Like, seriously, until he was nearly 5 years old. Dh and I were convinced he must be color blind because otherwise, the idea of his being "confused" about this made no sense to us. We really tried to help him name these colors properly, and eventually, what caught on was if he said something like, "I want that red shirt," and we noticed he was pointing toward a green shirt, we would ask, "The color of a fire engine, or the color of grass?" He could always associate the color with the correct object. Eventually, it worked itself out, and he definitely is not color blind.


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