Once Meredith and I began talking in depth about how she thinks in pictures, she began to be more aware of her inner workings and she started to share her observations with me. One day she told me a story that really put into perspective exactly how visual she is. She not only thinks in pictures, but thinks in video as well.
The story goes that she was in the cafeteria line at school and at the time she was in fourth grade. She saw that they were serving a Chicken Patty Sandwich. She had never had this particular sandwich before so when she saw it, she said to herself that it looks like a chicken nugget, only bigger and on a bun. Then she thought that there was a name for that logic she just used in that observation. She told me that she went (in her mind) to the Second Grade Filing Cabinet (from two years prior mind you) and then pulled out the Vocabulary Files. She thumbed through the files until she saw the word that she was looking for: inference
That would seem remarkable enough, but that was just the starting point. She said that not only could she see the word, she could see her teacher writing the word on the board, she could see the wrinkles in her shirt as she moved her arm, and she could see the ridges on the edges of the letters of the word inference on the board.Once again, I was picking up my figurative jaw off the floor. I was beginning to hone the skill of listening to Meredith's stories (which she shared spontaneously without prior notice) without letting on how completely amazed I was. Hearing things like this for the first time pretty much shattered any preconceived notions about my daughter and it did take me back a bit. As exciting as it was, of course there is also an aftershock of grief for the "normal" daughter I thought I would have. After every aftershock, however, I learned a new normal and really accepted and appreciated her gifts.
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