I don't "get" this kid...... he "sees colors".... So, explain this to me.. - Page 2

[robin3]

We discoverd our ds saw numbers as colors two years ago when he was nine. He also experiences feelings as tastes and colors. It explained sooooo much!!! He is very intense and sensitive and now I know why!  It explained why a kid who could hear a song once and have it memorized or read something once and have it memorized, couldn't do mulitiplication. It especially came out when they had timed mulitiplicationt tests in school. If he had time he could figure it out but the timed tests really threw him. He is in a public charter school that is an open classroom whole child education type place so when he needs to separate himself because of sensory overload he is able to.

An interesting side note: He sees number nine as black. When I was explaining to his sister, who is 20 years older than him (different dad,) about his synesthesia and how he sees numbers as colors she responded with "Uh huh, so?" Seems she has always seen numbers as colors and nine is also black! Explained sooooo much about her, also!

It has become less of an issue as our ds gets closer to puberty and mostly shows up in times of stress. Same for my daughter. So interesting!!

[Snowflake777]

I'm a synaesthete. I had a (now defunct) webpage about it many years ago.  I'm curious to see whether my kids will have it to. :)

[BubbleMa]

This is so fascinating!  I've never heard about it before, but now I'm intrigued!  :)

[Lollybrat]

My 7 year son has some mild synesthesia as part of his autism. He covers his eyes when noises are loud and at school he complains that the fire drills are "too bright".

[LynnS6]

did you hear the story on NPR today about synethesia?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4602748

[meemee]

more fascinating facts. how the abstract and logic is 'one'. http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_tammet_different_ways_of_knowing.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2011-06-21&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email

[journeymom]

Originally Posted by Cyllya 

I recall associating numbers with personalities and I think colors when I was a kid. I don't know if that's actually synesthesia though.
 

Yeah, I wonder about that, too.  I gave letters, numbers and colors personalities when I was a kid.  And genders.  As an adult I just figured it was part of the human tendency to anthropomorphize everything.  I don't think it's the same as mixing up your senses and actually seeing colors or tasting something.  Maybe it is,  but to a lesser degree. Like on a spectrum.

However I do remember when I was really little, like early 4 y.o, dreaming repeatedly about a short round man and a tall thin man.  Sometimes the thin man was the number 1 and the round man was the number 8.  And always, there was this bizarre, intense physical sensation with the dream.  The first time I saw Laurel and Hardy I was kind of bowled over and confused. There were those guys from my dream!! How is it they're here on TV?   That's the only time I can think where I had a physical sensation associated with a random figure. 

[staceychev]

I "have" it, too. It's numbers/letters associated with colors for me which, if what I've read is true, is the most common form. It's funny, because names will have colors associated with them because of their first letters, so when I was naming my girls, I was always drawn to certain names and not others based on color associations. It took me a while to figure out why I was drawn to "C" names--but then I realized that, duh, it's because they're blue, which is my favorite color! 

[milkybean]

Originally Posted by Wolfcat 

I also "perceive" electricity, either through touch or hearing it, but it doesn't usually register unless there's something wrong.

Me too.  When I was getting a ton of bodywork, it was nearly impossible for me to go into a "big box" store b/c of all the machines that were on in the store. 

Originally Posted by robin3 

It explained why a kid who could hear a song once and have it memorized or read something once and have it memorized...

Oooooh.  I'm a little "off" when it comes to how I learn, but nothing I can really put my finger on.  My mom, a few years before she died, saw a show about synesthesia and finally recognized herself in it, realized that's what she was dealing with, AND that not everyone does it!  She was very excited about it.  Her sister has quirks as well, their brother might too (and he's also very very smart, at the time he passed the Bar exam he was the youngest to do that in Florida).  And their mom could sight-read music *perfectly* and would hear a tune ONCE and be able to replicate it.

Can't help but wonder if all of them had interesting ways of thinking of things!

[FarmerBeth]

Originally Posted by habitat 

From what you've typed, he almost definitely has synesthesia. It can be really frustrating for a person, particularly a young person, to realize that their senses and receptions of their environments aren't coordinating with that of the people around them.

I have synesthesia. This is going to sound nuts to most of you: For me, numbers and letters (and therefore words) all have colors. Numbers also have (get this) personalities in my mind. I never understood when I was young that when I said someone was YELLOW (because their name translated in my mind as yellow), that my teachers thought I was just making stuff up. I still mix peoples' names up if they are similar colors. Don't get me started on Math. I just never got it because I couldn't look at numbers as simply quantifiable. To me, digits 1-9 were all different characters, which would get in the way of my "adding them up".

My good friend has color -> taste synesthesia. She tastes color. She likes the taste of some colors and others make her nauseous. For example, she can't STAND red and teal together. She played soccer as a child and once was on a red team. When they played against the teal team, she got horrendously sick and vomited until her mother took her home. She didn't figure out she had synesthesia until she saw a 20/20 episode about it.

So yeah, it's common. And it's real. And there's a lot of info on it.

I have a version of this.  I taste musical notes.  Before children I was a semi-professional classical musician, and my university education is a Bachelor of Music (since then I've been queen of community college-sigh) so I was constantly in this situation of tasting notes, especially simultaneously played intervals.  The interval of the second tastes just like copper pennies, and I really dreaded it after a while.  The only good thing to be said for it was that it helped me have this sort of instinctive perception when I had music dictation in classes.

[GuildJenn]

Yes I have friends who have this and it is very very real.

Hope the drop-in day went well. :)

[KaliShanti]

I have never heard of this, but it is facinating!

I always associated numbers and colors with personalities and genders too. Words as well.

I also recently discovered that I have simple partial seizures (and wow that explained a LOT of weird stuff I'd go through). I wonder if the two might be connected in some way?

[dbsam]

I've always done this - more when I was a child than now - but I never knew it had a name.  I associated several things with colors bust mostly numbers.   Like a 3 is green. 

I associated musical notes with a number via a color.