Do any of your children think like this?

[MommyJo]

I know that some children with autism think like this. I had a little girl who I was watching that would think of people in terms of animals. The more she liked you the higher up on her heirarchy you were. I was a bird (nobody had EVER gotten bird before so I was like a queen) then there were rabbits, and so on. I would think though by his age if he had any autistic like behaviors they would have been caught.

[oceandaughter]

I didn't realize the gender assigning thing was part of it.

 

I get textures and colors with music, but usually just vocals and mainly females. I don't like a lot of instruments in music (with the exception of symphonies) because it clutters it up and makes it too hard to get colors/textures. (Like take the Grateful Dead, I like their acoustic stuff when it's really stripped down and basic, but add a bunch of electric guitar, keyboards, and drums and I get too lost to really enjoy it even if it's a familiar song I enjoy).

 

But as for genders, red is female, blue is male (obviously) but also letters have gender for me as do number (8 being female, seven being male) and even personalities. (2 is kind of motherly/grandmotherly type, while five is a take charge father figure).

 

It's not something that I notice normally, but when I focus I can really tune into it. I wish I had more of it honestly.

 

But to go along with it, I can get sensory overload, especially with sounds. I wonder if sensory integration is connected with this somehow. (Read the rest of the thread, Jo!)

 

Jo

[oceandaughter]

I also have this way of hearing if my guitar is in tune. the notes kind of slide into a slot and when they match up, they glow.

 

Which is why I'm not teaching my children to play guitar now. It's too confusing to explain.

[WTMindy]

My son does colors and gender assignments. It is very disturbing to him when a Latin word is a different gender than he would assign to it. :-)

[Jenny in Florida]

I get textures and colors with music, but usually just vocals and mainly females. I don't like a lot of instruments in music (with the exception of symphonies) because it clutters it up and makes it too hard to get colors/textures.

 

Hey, I hadn't thought of that, but I "see" music, especially classical/instrumental pieces. It's tough to describe exactly what it looks like, but it's essentially strands of colors moving up and down with the pitch and interweaving (when there are several instruments or melodies at the same time).

[Kay in Cal]

That's the kind I have... I have a mental spatial map of time and of numbers. I only recently found out that everyone does not! I was amazed that anyone can do history study without having a place to mark the events mentally!

 

I have a mental number map as well, though it isn't as strong, and I can taste the tones on certain musical instruments.

[AnnetteB]

Ds, 20, seems surprised that I have to look up history dates and have "trouble keeping events sorted." He has these sensory traits and I do not. That may explain a lot! He loves history, numbers, and languages. He has many sweet "quirks." Dd, 11, is going to write out her multiplication story for us :)

[MBM]

 

It seems some of you and/or your children with synesthesia have an easy time with memorization. My son does, too. For instance, he'll look over his Sadlier-Oxford vocabulary words for school for less than an hour and have everything memorized exactly -- even synonyms and antonyms. He easily memorizes much of what he reads. I am not like that at all, but I wouldn't mind if I were!

 

He is also strong in math and music, and I am guessing that his synesthesia helps him with those subjects as well. Writing and art are a different story. ;)

 

But to go along with it, I can get sensory overload, especially with sounds. I wonder if sensory integration is connected with this somehow. (Read the rest of the thread, Jo!)

 

Jo

Very interesting. Before I knew my son had synesthesia, I often wondered if he had sensory integration issues. Loud sounds still tend to bother him. Recently, we went to a skating party, and the loud music upset him so much, we had to leave before he even entered the rink. It literally made him nauseous (he got the droolies).

 

A few other quirks: he can hear a high buzzing noise from the TV from a different room if it's on mute, and he's prone to motion sickness. I don't know if the one is related to the other, but it just seems that at times he is almost too sensitive to external stimuli. Maybe he'll outgrow some of it.

[Robin Hood]

So I ask my aspie kid "what color is A" and he says "alphalt".

 

I ask my husband, and he says "RED - because everyone learns that A is for Apple, and apples are red".

 

 

That makes sense. B is yellow because bananas are yellow.

[Spy Car]

Like take the Grateful Dead, I like their acoustic stuff when it's really stripped down and basic, but add a bunch of electric guitar, keyboards, and drums and I get too lost to really enjoy it even if it's a familiar song I enjoy.

 

Or like when Mickey left the band and Billy was the only drummer and Keith was playing keyboards and knew how to leave plenty of room for Jerry :D

 

Bill

[Peri]

I specificaly remember giving my numbers and letters a gender and a personality. To this day I have no idea why I saw and still do see it that way.

 

1 - snobby and male

2 - sesible and female

3 - a pretty girl

4 - a cool and smart male

5 - a very snobby female

6 - a male that does all the right things

7 - an insecure male

8 - a very feminine female

9 - the matriarch

10 - the patriarch

 

I feel the same way about letters but that's too long to put here. Maybe it's that kids like to be able to give personalities to their letters and numbers and it helps tem to work with it better.

[Haiku]

I have synesthesia. Sounds have shapes and shapes have tastes for me. Sounds like your sons have something similar going on.

 

Tara

[Haiku]

I have a mental spatial map of time and of numbers.

 

I do too. Mine look like reversed checkmarks for every century or group of 100. I didn't know other people didn't have mental maps of time and numbers!

 

Tara

[Ria]

I just asked two of my sons what color A is. One said, "A isn't a color; it's an indefinite article." The other said, "It's red." I asked him a few more questions...he's definitely got synesthesia. Fascinating. He said he thought we all saw letters as colors. He also sees seasons as colors.

 

Ria

[Nestof3]

Thanks everyone! This thread really took off more than I had anticipated. I had no idea so much went on in people's brains. I feel so ordinary. :glare:

[BritAnnia]

This was such a fun thread for me to find today as I'd been looking up books about Synesthesia earlier this morning.

I don't, and as far as I know my dc do not have it, but it fascinates me.

Wonderful that so many people here and/or their children have this ability.

[BritAnnia]

I can hear high pitch noises like tv buzzing (the new energy saver lightbulbs are the worst!), and the security 'shield' at the door of certain stores.

A few nights ago I left my laptop in the bedroom overnight. It's never usually in there and won't be again! It kept me awake with its beeping. The laptop was turned off but it was plugged in. Who knew it made so much noise in that state?!

Conversely, I hate heavy bass thumping, it makes me feel as if I'm passing out. Weird and annoying especially because my dh doesn't believe me. :tongue_smilie:

[Nestof3]

I can hear high pitch noises like tv buzzing (the new energy saver lightbulbs are the worst!), and the security 'shield' at the door of certain stores.

A few nights ago I left my laptop in the bedroom overnight. It's never usually in there and won't be again! It kept me awake with its beeping. The laptop was turned off but it was plugged in. Who knew it made so much noise in that state?!

Conversely, I hate heavy bass thumping, it makes me feel as if I'm passing out. Weird and annoying especially because my dh doesn't believe me. :tongue_smilie:

 

I thought I heard somewhere that heavy bass can actually trigger heart problems in people with heart issues.

[tamcnghton]

I just asked my three oldest, in separate rooms. My 7yog looked at me really strangely, my 4yog said "red" but couldn't tell me why and my oldest said, "Red, because apples are red." I asked if anymore letters were red and he said that g and x were red and f was blue. I asked if he saw the printed letters as colored or just thought of the color when he thought of the letter. He said that he was just telling me the colors of the flash cards that I use with his little sister!:tongue_smilie: He asked why I was asking these weird questions and after I told him, he said, "No, I don't have any problems like that. The only problem I have is that I have to read w/o my eyes or I see colored dots." :confused: I asked how he read w/o his eyes and he said he that he took pictures of the words and looked at them later . . . but the dots weren't so bad as long as he did not read while talking. If he read while talking, so many colored dots would zoom around that it was too hard to concentrate on the text. Weird. I have taken him to four doctors over the past 3 years, trying to find out about these pesky dots. The last one diagnosed him with Alice in Wonderland Syndrome :glare: but after having his adenoids out a year ago, he hasn't mentioned them, so I thought they were gone. Wonder if it is something else . . .

 

Oh my goodness. You are so lucky your child could verbalize the dot problem when he reads. I didn't get to finish reading the whole thread so maybe someone else has answered . He has scotopic syndrome. Not sure if I spelled it correctly. My dd has that. It is worse on white paper in flourecent lighting. Some see swirls, rivers, dots etc. My daughter had a hard time learning to read. We did the test locally. They layed different color transparancys with different intensities of the color until the rivers and dots went aways. I have it also but only in florecent lighting. I would go crazy if I had to work in a hospital (and i am suppose to be a diatician by profession) or office and prefer natural light. My daughter does best with paper backs since the pages are usually yellowed. Some people have a really hard time in school if the teacher writes on a white board. You can get glasses with the color lense that makes the problem go away. My Dd color is 3 or 4 layers of blues. If you don't use the colored transparencys you can get headaches or eye strain. The blue transparency clings to the monitor and makes everything ....ahhhhhh !

 

Kelli

Edited March 31, 2009 by tamcnghton
revised and added

[Quad Shot Academy]

You are so lucky your child could verbalize the dot problem when he reads. I didn't get to finish reading the whole thread so maybe someone else has answered . He has scotopic syndrome.

 

Kelli

 

That is interesting, because he does fit quite a few of the scotopic syndrome symptoms more than the Alice In Wonderland symptoms anyway. He used to freak out and think I had disappeared when he was 4, but had perfect vision using an eye chart. He reads extremely well and for long periods, so I am glad that is not an issue. Thanks for the info!