Every baby needs the help of parents in understanding the world around them. It is they who give him knowledge on the properties of various objects: shape, size, color. Color as a characteristic of an object does not seem pronounced; therefore, it is rather difficult for a baby to learn. When a child begins to distinguish colors and what age is optimal for this, you can find in the article.
About the flowers to be honest ...
The most “ancient” colors that first appeared in human culture are white, red and black. It is these colors that the baby will recognize soon after birth.
At what age does the child begin to distinguish colors? Studies were carried out among children four months old, according to the results of which it became clear that among chromatic colors, children distinguish four groups (red, green, yellow and blue), but they do not differentiate them in shades. It should be noted that in the first two to three months of life, children recognize red and yellow, and a little later, green and blue.
Each child has great potential in the field of color perception. This is closely related to how other mental processes proceed and various features are formed. The process of perception can be considered in close connection with the development and characteristics of thinking, imagination and so on.
Six months - an important age
What time do children begin to distinguish colors? It turns out that at six months they perceive absolutely each of them. But they learn and learn the names a little later. In the first days of training, the baby can remember the name of only one color (in most cases it is red). At about 2.5 years old, he knows the basic colors and calls them without difficulty. A year later, he learns two more colors - white and black.
Specialists studying early development are now not so categorical - they argue that the age limits for exploring flowers can vary.
From three years to school
The child begins to distinguish colors at the age of three. The main colors (red, yellow, blue and green) are already familiar to him. If you place stickers of these colors in front of the child, he will be able to name them. At this age, the peanut likes to discuss everything that he sees around, to find colors that are familiar to him.
At 4 years old, the child not only distinguishes between the primary colors, but also knows orange and purple. He has already learned that there is white and black. In his speech, the baby absolutely correctly applies three or four names. At this age, kids are happy to paint using all the colors they know. Parents can discuss their drawings with their children and understand their color preferences.
A five-year-old baby understands shades. He knows that the sun is yellow and the foliage is green. In addition, he knows how to distinguish and name two or three shades of a color already known to him (for example, the cream in the cake is pink and the rose is dark red).
At the age of six, a child not only knows all the colors that were listed above, but also knows how to differentiate shades (light gray hair of a bunny, bright red strawberry). Now the kids not only know, but can also name the colors (usually three to five). For example, a child may know lilac, lemon, lettuce, raspberry, turquoise. Also, children at this age already know what warm and cold shades are.
Before school, the guys call all the colors listed above. By this time, they had learned to get by mixing paints for painting.
If the baby does not distinguish colors
Before you figure out how old the children begin to distinguish colors, I must say that some mothers are very worried that their babies do not distinguish colors. But what exactly does the phrase “do not distinguish” mean? In most cases, it turns out that the kids just confuse the names. Adults should understand that color discrimination is a process that is fundamentally physiological. It is unfortunate that many adults, desperate, begin to think that suddenly their child has a pathology of visual perception. Although such anomalies are very rare!
As a rule, knowing the names of the flowers and correlating these names (red, yellow, white, etc.) with the attributes of objects can cause difficulties either due to little experience of the peanut, or due to mistakes made by adults in familiarizing the child with flowers.
Talk about mistakes ...
There are several common mistakes that mom and dad are capable of making while studying with the baby flower names.
Adults organize special games during classes, but in everyday communication they do not pay any attention to colors. But the more often the baby hears the names of the colors, the easier it is for him to remember the information.
Adults can habitually call all shades of color the same word: pink, raspberry, scarlet - it's all red. And the kids will be surprised and not understand why this happens: the colors are different, but the name is the same. You must initially teach children the correct names.
Quite often, adults draw analogies: “Green, like grass”, “Red, like cherry.” So do it wrong. The baby will get confused even more, because the grass can be brown and yellow, and the cherry - not only red, but also pink and yellowish.
Learning by playing
A very important point in the period when the child begins to distinguish colors - you can not study in a row colors that are similar. For example, blue and blue, the color of young foliage and green. It is necessary to consider completely different shades. For example, in this order: pink, blue, green, white, red.
Perhaps many mothers know that babies are best perceived with new information in the form of a game. Therefore, classes during which the baby must remember where and what color should be carried out in a playful way. Multi-colored markers, paints and pencils will serve as excellent helpers.
Before offering a child a pencil, it is necessary to say aloud what color it is and pay attention to what the result will be the object that the child will draw. For example: “Let's take a yellow pencil and draw a yellow bee.” If there are felt-tip pens with colored caps in the game, the child will learn to choose his own “hat” for each of them.
You can give a pencil to the child’s pens and ask which objects can be painted with this color. Educational cartoons and songs about colors will also be useful.
Useful Tips
We examined when a child begins to distinguish colors and speak them (by the way, many children at the age of three already clearly pronounce the names of several colors). Now we will study the recommendations of children's psychologists, with the help of which it is really fast and easy to teach the baby not only to distinguish colors, but also to remember what they are called:
- No need to limit the number of colors that are supposed to be studied. Kids learn and memorize quickly. Over time, you can add the words “dark” and “light”.
- Parents should initially speak the names of colors correctly, without the use of diminutive words. For example, say green, not green or green.
- You should not require the baby to immediately say the name of the color, because for him this can be a difficult task. It will be quite enough if the baby learns to show an object painted in the color that her mother calls.
- Adults need to remember: during classes it is necessary to name different shades in different ways. No need to call emerald and turquoise green. So the baby can get confused.
About color perception
To find out when a child begins to distinguish colors, parents try almost from his very birth. According to psychologists, at the children who are in preschool age, some disturbances of color perception can be shown. But do not worry. We need to start worrying only if the child has not learned to distinguish colors after seven years.
It is very important to understand that color blindness has a different degree and complexity. The reasons that a child cannot distinguish colors include the following:
- learning rate is too slow; each child is unique, has its own ability to perceive the information that comes in;
- parents started teaching children flowers too late;
- the baby is restless and practically not interested in classes.
How to learn colors with your baby
When does a child begin to distinguish colors and shapes? A small part of children cannot distinguish colors up to four years, when the bulk of children at this age can be offered the appropriate tasks. Psychologists believe that forms are a little easier to remember.
At the age of two, parents can offer light exercises in which they need to sort by color. For starters, it can be two or three contrasting colors. Moreover, the objects should be the same, for example, balls, cubes or colored cards. You can also separate the white beads from the red ones, for example. By the way, such an exercise perfectly develops fine motor skills of the hands.
Montessori Exercises
When the kid has mastered simple sorting, you can start the exercises more difficult. Now, when the child begins to distinguish colors, objects, and even remembers the incoming information very well, you need to offer him to sort different objects by color, using tweezers or spoons. This is suitable for a baby three years old, because at this age he already knows how to control the work of his fingers and pens.
As soon as parents understand that the baby already distinguishes between colors in the main spectrum, it’s time to move on to learning their names. Montessori pedagogy offers a three-step lesson. Before the child should be laid out three objects of different colors, but exactly the same in size and shape. For example, buttons, spools of thread, bottles of nail polish, color cards:
- First stage. Mom shows the buttons to the baby and says: "Here is red, here is yellow, here is blue."
- Second stage. Mom asks the baby: “Where is the red? Show me yellow! Where is the blue? "
- Third stage. Mom points to a button and asks: “What color is it?”
If the baby answers incorrectly, you should not correct it. It will be enough to work several times with the previous step.
Attention to parents! When studying colors, you need to pay attention to the four main ones: red, green, yellow and blue. Other colors should not be considered until the little one has acquired these. And only after he ceases to get confused in them, you can move on to new ones.