Colour
recognition is the ability to identify and name basic colours. Colour recognition
is important in recognizing objects around us and it is a precursor to language
in the context of naming and using adjectives. Recognizing colours or other
general concepts like shapes, numbers, alphabets, etc. develops in a child in
the order of sorting / matching, identifying, naming and generalizing, where,
in the context of colour concepts,
·
Matching
denotes
the ability to match similar coloured objects
·
Identifying
denotes
the ability to identify a colour when it is named
·
Naming
denotes
the ability to name a colour when asked
· Generalizing
denotes
the ability to understand the similarity of colours in varied objects
Matching:
Initially,
in teaching colour concepts, only one or two primary colours must be taught at
all levels of matching, identification naming and generalization. To begin with
teaching colour concepts, the child is given activities that involve matching.
For example, collect objects of similar shape or size but different colours
like yellow and red beads or yellow and red coins. Take two cups, one in yellow
and one in red. To teach matching, the child is expected to drop the red coin
in the red cup and the yellow coin in yellow cup. Encourage positive responses
and correct the wrong attempts. Once the child masters this, include more
colours like blue, green, black, white etc.
Generally,
children tend to easily achieve this level of matching and parents would begin
to proceed to next level- identification. But practically, the transition between matching and identification must be including
another phase which involves matching of same colour with objects that are
varied by size and shape. We, in our centre, took 15 children with varied
cognitive abilities to teach colour concepts. Among them, 11 children could do
matching of all primary colours efficiently but could not progress directly to
identification.
After
matching red and yellow coin in red and yellow cup respectively, the children
(individually ) were instructed to pick red coin when named and drop in the red
cup (this is identification). All of them were able to leave yellow coins and
pick up red coin and drop in the red cup. But when red and yellow coins and red
and yellow beads were mixed and presented, children were able to pick up red
“coins” but not the red “beads” when instructed to pick up red. This implies
that children paired the word “red” for only “red coins”. They could match
colours for only those objects that are similar in shape or size. So, before
moving to identification children must be trained to match colours of both similarly
sized or shaped objects and differently sized or shaped objects.
Hence,
the steps in matching would be:
1.
From a group of red and yellow coins,
match only red coins to the red cup
2.
From a group of red and yellow coins and
red and yellow beads match only red coins and red beads to the red cup
3.
From a group of red and yellow coins,
red and yellow beads, red and yellow balls, match only red coins, red beads,
red balls to the red cup
4.
Follow the above steps to all other
colours
Identification:
Once
matching is achieved for all basic colours with varieties of objects,
identification of colours can be taught. Here children will be presented with
objects of varied colours and varied shapes/size and asked to identify the
named colours.
Eg. 1. Present yellow bead and red ball and ask the child to
pick up red
Eg. 2. Present red ball
and yellow block and ask the child to pick up yellow.
Follow the same for all other colours. In identification,
parents/teachers must name colours and child must be asked to repeat the naming
during identification. This is the precursor of the next level – naming of
colours. For example when the parent says “pick up red”, the child must say “red”
when picking up red object. Here the child is learning to pair the name of the
colour to the object.
Naming:
In this level, the child must be asked to name the colour
of the object for example when the parent says “what is the colour of the ball”,
the child must say “red”. If this is not achieved, the child must again be
taught identification.
Generalization:
This involves naming of colours that are fixed colours of
objects. Example generalization involves the understanding that red is common
for apple, tomato, pomegranate, blood, rose, etc. in this the child must be
asked to list objects that are of red colour, yellow colour and so on.
