Synaesthesia: The Senses are all Mixed Up!

[storkdok]

There is a sensory perceptual disorder called synaesthesia, where the sense can be mixed up, like you "feel" a color, or "taste" a color.  Some autistics have written about this and a book I have by Olga Bogdashina, "Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism and Asperger Syndrome" talks about all the differences in the senses.  She identifies it as "the stimulation of one sensory modality triggers a perception in one or more different senses."  Examples are when sound or smell or touch or taste triggers the perception of a color, when sound, sight, taste is experienced as a shape or tactile sensation.  There are also colored-numbers, whether heard or read, which is the basis for The Brain Man, the English fellow who wrote his story in "Born on a Blue Day".  There are color-letters, color-graphemes where letters or words are experienced as colors.

My son has started to tell us that certain touches have color.  Mommies kisses are "red" and Daddies kisses are "blue".  He like blue kisses only.  Nick's kisses are "blue".  So I am wondering about this in my son.

Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen has estimated that 1 in 2,000 may have synaesthesia, and women predominate at a ratio from 3:1 to 8:1.  It is more frequent in Left-handed people, and is believed to be genetic.  15% of people with synaesthesia have a history of one of their first-degree relatives having dyslexia, autism,  or ADD.  The actual incidence of synaesthesia in the ASD population is unknown.

Karen:)co-admin

[mitch576]

Jul. 8, 2007 at 7:07 AM

karen.... devy loves to tell me that his hugs drinks do different things to him.

the red one makes him happy,purple makes you sad, blue makes you silly.....

i just thought it was a kid thing.

huh?!  i love that you teach me something new every day

thank you!!!

mitch

[Kiter]

Jan. 10, 2008 at 3:45 PM I'm kind of like that (I have Asperger's and SID), but my kids have never mentioned it- though they do have their odd ways of describing things. (they are autism spectrum, too)