Color vision emerges gradually in infants over the first few months of life. By 2-4 months, babies start showing interest in colors. From 4-7 months, they can distinguish between primary colors like red, green, blue and yellow. Full adult-like color vision develops between 3-4 years old. This article will examine the research on the timeline of color recognition in childhood.
Newborns 0-2 Months
Newborn babies have very limited color vision. Their world initially appears in black, white and shades of gray. However, they are not completely color blind at birth. Researchers using preferential looking methods find that newborns show a preference for colors over gray. So they can detect colors, but their ability to distinguish between hues is very poor.
Within the first 2 months, infant color vision improves rapidly. Experiments shows that by 6-8 weeks of age, babies look longer at colored vs grayscale images and start showing interest in colors in their environment. However, their ability to discriminate between colors is still very limited.
2-4 Months: Primary Colors Emerge
Between 2-4 months of age, infants develop the ability to perceive differences between the primary colors red, green, blue and yellow. Studies using habituation methods find that infants at this age can discriminate between blue, green and red, but not finer color distinctions.
Other experiments show babies at this age will reliably look longer at a new color after being habituated to a primary color like red. This indicates they can distinguish between the basic hues, an ability that is not present at birth.
4-5 Months: More Color Discrimination
At 4-5 months, as visual acuity continues to improve, babies become better at making color discriminations. While 2 month olds are limited to the primaries, by 4 months infants can also distinguish secondary colors and shades like orange, purple and turquoise.
Research shows babies start developing color preferences at this age, often for high saturation and warm colors like red and pink. Experts think the increasing color discrimination at this age starts establishing color-object associations that lay the groundwork for further color learning.
6-9 Months: Color Categories Emerge
Between 6-9 months, babies start sorting colors into broad categories. Studies show infants at this age group similar shades together, whereas younger babies would discriminate between shades of the same hue.
For example, 6 month olds can now group together two slightly different shades of blue, recognizing them as instances of their new “blue” color category. This shows color perception is becoming more categorical and abstract.
9-12 Months
From 9 to 12 months, infants get much better at identifying and matching colors. Researchers find they can now reliably match a colored patch to an identically colored patch, indicating they perceive the colors as belonging to the same category.
Their color discrimination also continues improving. While younger babies struggle with subtly different hues, 10 month olds can discriminate between similar colors like forest green and lime green. As their color vision develops, infants start using color more often for object recognition and sorting.
12-18 Months
In the second year of life, toddlers start naming colors, indicating color categories are becoming cognitively meaningful. Research shows the first color words toddlers comprehend and produce are primary colors like red, blue and green. More fine-grained color terms like “orange” come later.
Toddlers also get much better at color matching tasks. 18 month olds have little trouble finding the matching colored sock among a pile of multicolored socks. Their improving color memory helps them consistently choose correct colors when naming or matching.
18 Months – 2 Years
From 18 months to 2 years, children’s color vocabulary expands rapidly as their color categorization becomes more adult-like. Across languages, children learn color terms in a predictable sequence: first the primaries, then secondary colors, then shades like pink and purple.
Between 18-24 months, most toddlers have learned color words for red, blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, pink, black and white. Their ability to group colors into basic categories allows rapid acquisition of color terminology.
2-3 Years
By age 2, most toddlers comprehend basic color words and start using them productively in speech. But their understanding can be limited. For example, 2 year olds may call any light blue object “purple” or use “red” for any warm color. Their color categories are still broader than adults.
Between 2-3 years, color comprehension becomes more adult-like. Now children stringently apply terms only to the appropriate shades and understand descriptive color words like “light blue” or “dark red.” Rapid improvements in color memory also contribute to growth in color knowledge during the preschool years.
3-4 Years: Adult-Like Color Perception
Most 3 year olds have a relatively mature understanding of basic color names and categories. However, color discrimination may still be immature, especially for similar hues. Experiments find 3 year olds make more errors than adults when sorting colored items by shade.
Their color vision is also more vulnerable to context effects. For example, a preschooler may identify the same shade as blue or purple depending on the surrounding colors. Adult-like color constancy usually isn’t reached until age 4. By this point, children have the same perceptual color categories as adults and can ignore irrelevant context when naming colors.
| Age Range | Color Recognition Abilities |
|---|---|
| Birth to 2 months | – Can detect colors but only see in black, white and shades of gray |
| 2 to 4 months | – Discriminate between basic hues like red, blue, green and yellow |
| 4 to 5 months | – Distinguish secondary colors and more hues like orange and purple |
| 6 to 9 months | – Start categorizing similar colors together |
| 9 to 12 months | – Improve color matching abilities |
| 12 to 18 months | – Learn first color words like red, blue, green |
| 18 months to 2 years | – Expand color vocabulary rapidly |
| 2 to 3 years | – Use color terms productively in speech |
| 3 to 4 years | – Reach adult-like color perception |
Conclusion
In summary, infants are not born with the ability to see color fully. But color vision develops rapidly over the first year of life as visual acuity improves. By 2-4 months babies can distinguish primary colors, by 9 months they categorize colors, and by 1 year they can match colors. But color perception continues maturing. Toddlers learn color terms between 18-24 months, and adult-like color constancy emerges by age 4. So while infants discriminate colors from 2 months on, mature color recognition abilities take several years to fully develop.