Color as a Noun: A New Technique to Teach Children

Parents realize that their child’s ability to recognize color is just as important as mastering ABC’s and simple words. Educators also use color recall to detect possible developmental problems, or color vision deficiencies (color blindness) when teaching preschoolers. (In the United States, about 7 percent of the male population – or about 10.5 million men – and 0.4 percent of the population female has a color vision deficiencies. The most common being red–green color blindness—difficulties in discriminating red and green hues).

Color ID can still be a hurdle for children in some instances, regardless of any learning/health issues. Recent findings suggest that a majority of parents and educators have been approaching the learning process incorrectly for sometime.

An article published in the July issue of Scientific American

proposes a simple language based solution—that color names should be used as nouns rather than adjectives when describing an object. The transposing of words at the inception of color teaching delivered improved comprehension significantly.

As adults we see color (usually) as a straightforward observation rooted in years of visual understanding. From a child’s point-of-view it can be hard to understand that an object that is burgundy vs. an object that is crimson, are still categorized as “red”.

To encourage better color matching recall, the solution is an elementary one. Color names should always precede the named object being referenced. For example, “That is a red ball,” not “That ball is red.” This simple technique will promote positive results to reassure any preschooler taking their first steps toward color naming.

Another Pinboard to Follow

Having resisted Pinterest for about a year now, I finally dipped my toes into the virtual pool of pinboards. My apprehension was truly misdirected and I've come to find that the concept of organizing visual images/links onto a virtual board has become a great teaching tool. After covering the typical graphic design topics such as typography, and history it was a natural move to include color among the related topics. So here is a link to my All Color Matters pinboard .

Purple for the Privileged

Murex Brandaris For centuries, the color purple was both an elusive and exclusive hue. From the time of Ceasar till the conclusion of the Byzantine Empire, purple was worn by kings and those serving in a high office or positions of influence. Rulers like Nero would sentence anyone to death who dared to wear imperial purple. The Roman emperor Diocletain however, took a more economical approach by collecting taxes from anyone who was compelled to slip on the hue. Up until the 1850’s, the arduous process of acquiring this color was more involved then its close cousin—red. Not unlike red, purple was also derived from the animal kingdom. Farmed from the Mediterranean region by the Phonecians as far back as 1500 B.C., Tyrian Purple came from the mucous secretion of a predatory sea snail’s hypobranchial gland ( murex brandaris , murex trunculus , bolinus brandaris ). The sea snails were soaked and then boiled in large vats which allowed the “juice” to be removed from the gland. It t...

Color and Design

Not a book for light reading, Color and Design will satisfy any design practitioner, or scholar seeking to gain a more expanded view of how humans respond to color. Editors Marilyn DeLong and Barbara have curated a selection of essays which are organized into subjects ranging from color psychology to marketing and trend influences. Since these are essays, the reader should not expect this book to offer a cultural analysis of primary/secondary colors nor an explanation of basic color theory. What the text does offer is specific examinations on various topics that center around sociological approach of how color is assimilated within a culture, its art, folklore and consumerism. Outwardly this can seem to be a real bore. I did however find a pearl or two that can potentially be assigned as required reading for my students. For example in Part III: Markets and Trends , I found an informative essay by Alex Bitterman ( Color the World: Identifying Color Trends in Contemporary Ci...

All Color Matters

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