Having a Ball with Colors

When your baby is able to sit upright on his or her own, you may want to begin introducing the concept of color. It’s best to start simply by using balls of different colors.

Begin by selecting two balls of complimentary colors. The balls must be the same size and material. Color should be the only difference. The color difference needs to be obvious to avoid confusing the baby.

The best complimentary color combination is a blue ball and an orange ball. A yellow ball and a purple ball would be an acceptable combination; however, do not use a red ball and a green ball. Even though red and green are complimentary colors, there is a chance that this color combination could be problematic. If your child has red-green blindness, this color combination will make the exercise unproductive and possibly stressful for the baby. (Click here for more information about red-green color blindness.)

To begin the lesson, take a blue ball and an orange ball in each hand. Present the balls to the baby. Shake the blue ball slightly to get your baby’s attention and say, "Blue ball." Then, shake the orange ball slightly and say, "Orange ball." Repeat this several times.

Continue to repeat this process a few times each day. Eventually, your baby will catch on to the color difference.

When you believe that your baby understands the concept of color difference, place the blue ball and the orange ball a few inches apart on the floor in front of your baby. Point to the balls. Ask the baby which is the blue ball. There’s at least a 50% chance that the baby will point to the blue ball. If the baby chooses correctly, clap your hands, cheer, and exclaim, "That’s right! Blue ball." If the baby chooses the orange ball, gently say, "Orange ball." Then point to the blue ball and say, "Blue ball."

To let the lesson sink in, let the baby play with the balls for as long as he or she wants. Repeat this lesson a few times each day. Eventually, your baby will be able to correctly identify the blue ball without fail.

Once the baby can consistently identify the blue ball, begin asking the baby to point to the orange ball during the lessons. Eventually, the baby will be able to consistently identify both the blue ball and orange ball.

Once you are confident that your baby fully understands the difference between the blue and orange balls, introduce a yellow ball to the set. Continue along with the process until the baby can identify all three balls. Eventually, you can add a purple ball, a red ball, and then a green ball.

Using this incremental approach, you can teach a child all six of the basic colors. More importantly, your baby will also learn the abstract concept that similar objects can be classified by differing features such as color.

Baby Gyms Provide a Workout for the Brain

A baby gym normally consists of arches that extend over a small cushioned play mat. The gym sits on the floor and provides you with a comfortable and stimulating place to lay your baby when you are unable to hold him or her. (The Tiny Love Gymini is one of the best-known baby gyms.)

The important feature of the baby gym is the arches. These arches generally have several holes that allow you to suspend toys over your baby. The suspended toys give your baby interesting objects on which to focus. This helps with the development of eyes and visual processing skills. The suspended toys also provide your baby with objects to bat around with his or her hands and feet. This helps the development of motor skills.

When selecting a baby gym, try to find one in black, white, and red. If you cannot find one with these colors, look for a gym with a lot of contrasting colors and bold patterns.

When setting up the baby gym, suspend the toys in locations where your baby is likely to hit or kick them by accident during normal movement. As your baby repeatedly bumps the suspended toys by accident, your baby will begin to realize that he or she has control over his or her environment, which is a major developmental breakthrough. If you watch carefully and are lucky, you will actually witness the precise moment that your baby realizes that he or she can manipulate objects by moving arms and legs.

The Red Green Show for Children

Red-green color blindness is more common than many people believe. About 7% of males and about 1% of females have red-green color blindness.

Red-green color blindness (dichromatism) is genetic and carried on the X chromosome. Fathers (XY) may pass it to only their daughters. Mothers (XX) may pass it to only their sons.

Red-green color blindness is not a serious affliction. It simply means that a red-green color-blind person has a defective color receptor and will have difficulty differentiating between the two colors. For this reason, do not be frustrated if your child becomes confused when red and green appear together.

If your child seems to have difficulty identifying red objects on green backgrounds and green objects on red backgrounds, consider limiting use of toys and teaching materials containing those color combinations. As soon as practical, have your child’s vision tested. Even if your child is color-blind, he or she will learn to cope. Millions of other people manage to deal with color blindness successfully every day.

Black, White, and Red All Over: The Newborn’s Color Palette

Infants have awful eyesight. This may sound like a disadvantage, but it is actually nature’s way of sparing the baby from excessive visual stimulation.

Our world is full of light and colors. All of this visual stimulation has little impact on adults, because we have become accustomed to it. A newborn baby, however, has spent nine months in almost total darkness. The roughly 10,000,000 colors that the adult eye sees create far too much information for the newborn baby to process.

For this reason, newborns have been blessed with minimal eyesight. Newborns are near-sighted and see the world in fuzzy shapes and muted hues. What babies can see moderately well is contrasts, and no colors contrast better than black and white. Newborns also have the ability to detect red.

You should keep the newborn’s color palette in mind when selecting toys. Try to find toys that use black, white, and red. Also, look for toys that have bold patterns with clear lines and well-defined shapes. Remember that the newborn’s vision is very limited. Having toys that are easy to process visually will help your newborn learn to interpret shapes.

Making Your Own Flashcards

If you are having difficulty finding flashcards that meet your needs, you can always make your own. The advantage to making your own flashcards is that you can tailor them to your child’s particular interests.

You can design these cards using software like Microsoft Word, Microsoft Paint, CorelDraw, Adobe Illustrator, etc. and print them out on your own printer. When printing the cards, make sure to use the heaviest cardstock that your printer can handle. The thick material should hold up well over repeated uses.

Consider the color of the paper. You want the background to contrast well with the image on the flashcard. You will probably want to go with pale yellows, blues, and greens. If you want to make flashcards specifically for teaching colors, get some paper with vivid colors. Crayola makes a nice multi-pack of paper that includes vivid sheets of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Colored cardstock is available at stores like Wal-Mart, Target, Staples, Office Depot, etc.

The ideal size for a flashcard is about 4" X 6". Cut the flashcards down to a uniform size and protect them with adhesive lamination sheets. Bind each set of flashcards with a rubber band. These flashcards will provide you and your child with hours of fun and learning.