How do kids learn words for colors? And is it possible to help them along?
Learning color words is different than recognizing colors. Kids learn to recognize colors early on, but still have trouble with saying the color names.
Kids usually learn language starting with nouns. Colors are additional information that’s less concrete. (Kids can’t even see the full spectrum of colors until they’re five months old.) By the time they can talk, they should have figured all the colors out by now, right?
Not so fast. In a Stanford University study, most children were stumped when presented with a few items and asked to identify the colors. Parents were worried their kids might be color blind.
It can all be overwhelming to a toddler, considering how many colors are in the environment. It’s far easier for a child to learn nouns first–for instance, dogs and cats are obviously not the same. But learning orange vs. red? That’s more of a challenge.
What language the child speaks is part of the puzzle. Some cultures describe groups of colors differently. What’s called warm and cool colors in English might be thought of differently in other languages.
How to speed up the learning process
We often try to teach colors with the object at the end of the sentence–“This is a red balloon.”
The researchers found that by instead saying “This balloon is red,” it facilitates kids learning the color word “red.” The tykes were first presented with a noun they already recognized, then were able to focus their attention on its color word. (Again, which language they speak makes–English with its habit of putting a color first makes things harder for kids than some languages, such as French, where it’s “the balloon red. Don’t know if French kids learn colors quicker, though.) Using the adjective “red” at the end of the sentence helps the child focus on the color word, and isolate it as a concept.
So next time your child doesn’t refuses to eat broccoli, she can always instead learn the color green, as in, “the broccoli is green”–not “eat the green broccoli.” Perhaps she’ll enjoy learning the color so much she’ll decide to try some broccoli!