Sensory Overload Giggle

Meredith and I love this!

From "A-Synesthetic-World"

Photographic Memory

Meredith told me that in science class one day, her friends wanted to "test" her to see whether or not she truly has a photographic memory, which she often claims to have. To do this, a student showed Meredith a picture of a fish--an outline of a fish that was meant to be colored in by the students as an assignment--and then asked her to draw it from memory. She drew most of the fish, but didn't get it all. "Gotcha!" I'm sure they said. Meredith was upset that her classmates now didn't believe she had a photographic memory.  The problem, she told me, was that the person who was showing her the drawing wasn't holding it steady and as a result, the mental picture Meredith took of the drawing was partially blurry.

Something about that story amazes me.  I think the fact that Meredith's mental picture was partially blurry is more amazing than the fact that she can hold images in her mind for a long time (whether or not that is truly a photographic memory).  It demonstrates that she actually does take a "snapshot" of something to remember it and her memory will only be as good as the snapshot she takes!

Update:
Since this post was written, we discovered that Meredith also has Irlen Syndrome--a visual processing disorder. One of the symptoms of Irlen Syndrome is perceiving high contrast things, like black words or lines on a white page,  as moving. There seem to be classic ways that things are seen to be moving--floating, shaking, moving off the page, etc.  With this new understanding, Irlen Syndrome seems to be the logical explanation for why Meredith thought her classmate wasn't holding the picture of the fish steady.  

Processing the Litter from the Day

I met someone recently who told me she sees colors when she closes her eyes to go to sleep at night. I hadn't heard this before and it sounded like some sort of synesthesia, so I decided to ask Meredith if she experienced the same thing. She told me that she doesn't see colors, but she does do something else when she goes to bed that amazes me and highlights beautifully how she processes information visually.

Meredith said that when she goes to sleep at night, she will review her day from beginning to end and then backwards again, sometimes three or four times in a row. When she is doing that, she files away things that she didn't get a chance to file away earlier in the day. She explained that if things don't get filed away, it is very unnerving and gives her a lot of anxiety. In fact, she explained that her little mental assistant, Merebith, goes around Brainsburg (the city in which she lives) like a janitor picking up all the litter from the day. The "litter" is the bits and pieces of information that she needs to file. Once Merebith collects all the litter, she files it away in the Treasure of Files.

After hearing this, I asked another very visual thinker I know whether she did the same thing at night. She said that she reviews her day starting from the beginning and, like Meredith, files information away that she didn't get to earlier. She agreed that unless everything is filed away, she gets very anxious. For her, she calls this process "clearing the mechanism."

The Trees Have Outgrown Their Season

I recently joined a few Facebook groups where people discuss synesthesia. Shortly after Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast, someone in one of these groups asked whether anyone else was feeling badly for the trees that had fallen down during the storm. Many people agreed that they did. (Sorry for posting the photo for any sympathetic synesthetes out there!) People who personify objects like this may have Object Personification, a subtype of synesthesia.

Seeing that post prompted me to ask Meredith whether she felt bad for trees when they were chopped down. She said definitely yes. Since the trees are now losing their leaves here in the South, it got me to thinking about how that made her feel. When I asked, she said that no, that doesn't make her feel bad. The trees have just "outgrown their season," she explained. How poetic. I love that!

Elaborating on what she meant, she explained that the trees were excited to be moving on to a new set of leaves. Those leaves were like, SO 2012, anyway! I finally understood that she saw leaves as the tree's clothing and really as a fashion statement. She explained that the trees with bright, bold leaves in the Fall were the true "fashionistas." Then there are the scraggly oak trees with a few leaves holding on. She explained that these were like old ladies trying desperately to hold to the last bit of their clothing, afraid of being naked. They are waving their dry and crooked branches around like canes yelling at people in old, crackling voices, "Don't you take away my leaves there, young man!"

As we approached our house in the car later that day, I asked her what she thought about our great big Ash tree in the front yard. At that time, it was at it's peak color--a very bright yellow. For some reason, there have been a whole bunch of butterflies fluttering around this tree lately. Because of the tree's bright leaves and all the butterflies, she said that she sees our tree as a gay man. We had a good laugh at that.

While finding photographs for this post, I ran across this photo and thought that Meredith and other synesthetes like her would probably get a big kick out of it. I wonder if these sweaters are also like, SO last year?

Numbers as People

I recently wrote a post about Math as Characters.  As a follow-up, I wanted to post a picture that Meredith drew me a few months ago...I just found it.  It shows her numbers zero through nine as she thinks of them, including their color.  Perceiving numbers, days or the week, or other sequential items as people is called Ordinal-Linguistic Personification, or OLP.  It is a subtype of synesthesia.

I will try to describe her numbers' personalities the best I can here.  She could probably write pages about each number since they have many independent stories.  For one example, once they had a cooking competition among themselves that lasted for a few weeks.  They divided up into groups and they each had one type of food to work with.  Merebith and Dogot were the judges...

Perceiving numbers, days or the week, or other sequential items as people is called Ordinal-Linguistic Personification, or OLP.  It is a subtype of synesthesia.

1 - God Boy  Since he is "number one" or "numero uno" as they say, he is pretty full of himself.  He has a halo and wings.

2 - Confused Girl  She is confused because she is made up of both curves and straight lines.  She's kind of dumb.

3 - Partyboy Boy  Since he's made of curves, he's really fun and hyper.

4 - Normal Girl  She is holding a snail that is branded with the number four.  All of her snails are branded with the number four because they are like her "herd."  She's pretty average because she is made of straight lines.

5 - Cool Boy  He's cool because he has a "cool" curve.

6 - Lonely Girl  She is lonely without her number 1 because she likes to be with other people and her favorite number is 16.  She is in a wheelchair because she is clumsy without her partner (number 1).

7 - Innocent Boy You can tell he is innocent from his little propeller hat and ice cream cone.

8 - Twin Boys  They are named twin boys because they are conjoined twins. The smaller brother sits on top of the bigger brother. Their symbol is Gemini.

9 - Alien Girl Alien Girl is a tom-boy. She is always CRAZY!!!* She annoys everybody.

0 - Fun Boy He is hyper and likes being happy.


*Meredith wrote that as you can tell by the use of color!

House of Cards

Ever since I worked with Dr. Cheri Florance, I knew that Meredith's auditory skills were weak, but I mostly thought of it in terms of an overall language processing issue...that pictures were Meredith's first language and words were her second language and as a result, "listening" to people talking would always be difficult for her.

This summer, however, Meredith was officially diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD), scoring in the Lower Extreme range of the test.  This wasn't a surprise to me given my perspective on Meredith's weak language skills.   However, it did cause me to shift my focus slightly and start exploring things from an APD viewpoint.  One great resource I have come to find is specialty groups on Facebook, including a few APD groups.  These groups are so helpful because you can hear individual stories and get advice from many people dealing with the same issue.  It is great to be able to communicate so quickly with people as well.

Through one of these APD Facebook groups, I stumbled across a blog from a teen with APD that was so helpful in understanding things from the point of view of an adolescent with APD.  In one post, she presents an insightful "Guide" for parents on how to help their child with APD.  She explains that it is very difficult if she is talking to one person and another person (like a pesky brother!) talks over them or if the person she is talking with stops the conversation for a moment to talk to someone else.  She said that if her conversation is interrupted, she loses all the auditory information that she was processing.

Immediately, I could relate to what she wrote and understood why Meredith would always get so mad at her younger brother for interrupting a conversation.  If she is interrupted, she is more than irritated.  She is downright mad at him and will snap at him very quickly.  I always thought she overreacts and was selfish that way.  But now I understand.  I understand that she loses the conversation that she was trying to hold on to so desperately.

Asking Meredith about whether or not this was how she experiences things, she wholeheartedly agreed and explained that a conversation for her is like a "house of cards."  It is very delicate and interruptions can cause it to come crashing down.  What a great explanation.  As a result, we now talk specifically about this in our family and her younger brother is understanding better that his big sister is not just a big ol' meanie or a selfish person.  And once again, I have a new layer of understanding that is enhancing our relationship and our family dynamic.

"But Dad Isn't a Lady"

Meredith recently switched groups in her school.  She was very anxious about this change for the first couple of weeks, afraid that the group would be too hard for her.

One morning, however, Meredith said that she was doing better in her group than she thought.  Excitedly, she asked me to give her two numbers.  "Why," I ask.  "Just give me two numbers...two big numbers," she insisted.

After giving her two numbers that met her satisfaction, she began doing mental math and mumbling this and that.  Finally, she sputtered out the answer and was very satisfied with herself.

"But what were you solving?  What was the problem?"  It took a number of times going back and forth for Meredith to articulate what exactly it was that she was doing in her mind.  I finally ascertained it was the Pythagorean Theorem.

So often, Meredith doesn't realize that people can't follow her thoughts and she gets irritated with the fact that she has to explain things to people.  Sometimes, she'll only say three words and trail off into silence, leaving the listener waiting for the rest of her thought.  Then when you ask her what she was saying, she'll say, "Didn't I say that out loud?" and laugh at herself.

I relayed to the Head of School that Meredith was finally feeling very confident in her new group and was very excited about the higher level math.  It was surprising, although not unexpected, that higher level math was almost easier for Meredith than easier math.  Apparently this is not uncommon for visual thinkers like Meredith who thrive on complexity.  The Head of School asked me to remind him what my husband did for a living and after I told him that he manages complex reverse logistics operations, he told me that some day Meredith will be a powerful young lady like her Dad.

Guess what Meredith said in all seriousness after I told her this?  "But Mom, Dad isn't a lady."  Language processing issue: check!

Math in Characters

I finally got around to reading Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet.  Daniel is a well-known autistic savant and synesthete--a savant unique in his abilities to describe to others how he thinks.  In his book, he describes how numbers have always been a very important part of his life.  He explains that he experiences each number as having shape, color, emotion, and personality.  He also explained that he found algebra difficult because for him, letters do not elicit the synesthetic response as numbers. 

Because I know Meredith's numbers are characters (see this post), I asked her if they caused her any difficulty with math problems.  She told me, chuckling, that when doing subtraction one of the numbers is "taken away" to "juvie" (i.e., juvenile jail).

I know that algebra tends to be difficult for visual thinkers and asked her what happens when letters are introduced to math problems.  She said that her letters are characters, too.  The letter a, for instance, is a girl (in the shape of "A") wearing a fancy A-line dress.  The letter x is a criminal. 

She said that actually, Merebith is doing diagnostics on an algebra equation at the moment.  She is trying to figure out how Meredith solved a really long algebra equation when she had trouble solving a very short one.  Chuckling again, Meredith said that Merebith and Dogot are playing good cop, bad cop with the numbers in the equation.  She said it's like an old black and white detective movie where the police question the suspects: "Where were you at 12:00 yesterday..."

Merebith is shining a bright light on the suspects.  They first questioned number two, who is actually a cloud.  But because he could only sputter out thunder and lightening trying to answer their questions, they let him go.  Dogot is wearing the police hat he took out from his extensive hat collection and is using this really funny, deep robot talk, trying hard to act like a bad cop.

So I suppose it is safe to say that because Meredith's numbers are characters and each equation has a storyline factors into why Meredith often finds learning math frustrating, despite her teacher's response that she has a lot of potential in math.  I imagine that Meredith is trying to reconcile how math is "supposed to work" with how Merebith diagnoses how math works.

I'm really looking forward to reading Daniel Tammet's newest book: Embracing the Wide Sky.

A "Place" in My Heart

Meredith's new friendship is still going strong with her new friend (who I'll call Sarah) who is so similar to her in thinking style.  One night while I was tucking her in, I asked Meredith if Sarah was still as special as she was a few months ago when they really got to know each other.  Meredith responded, "Mom, she has a special place in my heart.  No, really...she literally has an apartment in my heart!" 

Meredith explained that when she and Sarah found out that they were so similar and really enjoyed each other as friends, Merebith got two new things: a pot of gold (since she hit the jackpot) and a little Sarah who could play with Merebith.  Sarah got a new apartment in Meredith's heart that has a bedroom, a kitchen, and a bathroom.  Apparently, Sarah doesn't need a big place because she is mostly busy playing with Merebith!

Swimming in Your Thoughts

Meredith just started swimming with a new swim team. She has always loved swimming, but it really has to be the right environment. For instance, the last team we joined practiced in an enormous indoor swim complex that was exceptionally loud and chaotic, which meant the coaches also yelled a lot. Not good. Then Meredith swam with a summer league where she enjoyed practice at the outdoor pool, but detested the meets which were loud, long, chaotic, unbearably hot...you get the picture.

So, she is so enjoying her new arrangement. There are maybe 10 kids at the most at her practices, swim meets are optional, it is at an outdoor, heated pool, and the coach is a very sweet mannered young woman. I'm shocked that she is actually wanting to practice three times per week because she complained so much in the past about going. Obviously the difference is the sensory environment. The...sensory...environment. Nine times out of ten the sensory environment is what stresses Meredith.

And that brings me to the point of swimming as an attractive sport for people like Meredith--highly visual thinkers who have weaker auditory systems (i.e., Mavericks). Swimming quiets down all the noise so the auditory system isn't working in overdrive. It eliminates visual distractions so the visual system isn't engaged in it's perpetual scanning mode. The elimination of the auditory and visual distractions allows you to enter that state-of-mind where you can freely wander through your thoughts (without being accussed of daydreaming). The physical aspect probably helps in engaging the right brain as well.  You don't usually get too cold or too hot.  Really, it is quite ideal for this breed.

I once was talking to my massage therapist during a massage (why do I always do that?!) and she clearly was a Maverick. She told me that her work place environment is perfect because it is dark, there is soft music, and she is doing something physical--all of which really allowed her mind to wander into places she enjoyed going to. She appeared to be so fullfilled with her work.


So, as always is the case, Merebith is following along with Meredith and has also started back with swimming, but she has her own Olympic sized pool. Guess who her coach is? Michael Phelps! Apparently he struts into practice wearing all eight of his gold medals around his neck.  Merebith loves swimming.

Dogot, meanwhile, has his own smaller pool filled with oil. His favorite thing to do is to lie on his back and spit mouthfuls of the oil up into the air. Can't you just picture it? Of course when he gets out, he is covered in oil. No problem!  He just rolls over to this huge blow-dryer looking machine and when he turns it on, it blows all the oil right off. How convenient!

Language in Pictures

For picture thinkers, the English language can present so many strange pictures.  Last week, Meredith told me that she hates homophones in particular--words that sound the same but have different meanings.  One example she gave me was "duty" vs. "dooty." (You can see where this is going, right?)  Meredith says that whenever she hears that a teacher is on "lunch duty," she gets a disturbing picture of the teacher on top of dooty. 

Last weekend, the students at Meredith's school ran a water stop for a local marathon. As we were driving to our volunteer spot early in the morning, we went over the instruction sheet. The instructions said that in addition to handing out water, a portion of the students were going to be on "Encouragement Duty."  It just took one look from me with my eyebrows raised for her to share what she pictured that to be.  She said she pictured a pile of dooty holding up signs and cheering.  Wouldn't THAT be something to laugh at!

Some people need more processing time when they are told something, when they read something, or when they see something.  But what many people probably don't realize is that for some people, it is not because they have "slow" processing speed.  Visual thinkers, for example, tend to have extremely FAST processing speeds.  It's just that they are processing something else--like why a pile of dooty would be acting like a cheerleader!!  They need to sort out the pictures from the words--something I think almost all of us take for granted, especially with the plethora of idioms and other figures of speech in the English language.

This reminds me of a really funny example given by a great blogger for Psychology Today, Lynne Soraya, who writes about life with Asperger's Syndrome.  In her post, she writes:

During a recent trip, running through the airport, I caught a brief glimpse of something that made me stop dead and burst out laughing. I know it must have seemed strange to those around me - but that's not unusual. The unique way my brain processes sensory inputs had played yet another trick on me.

Suitcase-bearing travelers made quick course corrections to navigate around me as I turned to re-examine the door I'd just passed through. A decal on the door read, "No smoking" and "Pets must be kept in cages." That wasn't what had made me laugh - what made me laugh was how my brain, desperately trying to make sense of the visual chaos of the airport, had translated it: "Smoking pets must be kept in cages."

Musical Paint Chips and Purple Textures

The most wonderful thing has happened.  Meredith has found a new friend who shares the same style of thinking as she does!  Her new friend also experiences a lot of synesthesia just like Meredith.  They are so happy together and are a wonderful support system for another.  How wonderful it must be for them.

It does make for some funny happenings, though.  For example, the two girls and I decided to start a small little business making crafts out of paint sample strips.  (I had thought the two girls would love this idea since they are crazy about color, probably due to their synesthesia.)  We went to Home Depot to collect some materials and spent a good amount of time looking at all the colors. 

It occurred to me while were were collecting our samples to ask Meredith whether she was hearing a lot of music because of all the color on the wall.  (I asked her about whether she heard music because one time she made a collage of paint chips and hung it up in her room.  She told me that she looked at it to hear the music when she wanted to relax.)  So, yes, Meredith said that she was indeed hearing lots of music.  We continued gathering our paint chips and then we came across the paint chip samples that were textured.  I saw Meredith's friend rubbing her fingers over a sample of textured beige paint and I asked her as well, "Are you hearing anything, seeing any color or anything with that texture?"  She responded, "It's purple." 

Sweat and Despair

Quick story: I was tucking Meredith into bed, still in my workout clothes from earlier in the day and she said, "Mom, you smell like sweat and despair, like you failed at lifting weights at the gym."  I just love that!

String Around Her Finger

Meredith was dosing off on the couch and snapped up and said, "Mom!  I just saw a ribbon on Merebith's finger and I remembered I have something to tell you.  I know where the missing remote control is."

Of course I had to ask more about this and Meredith explained that Merebith right now has about eight ribbons around her fingers to remind her of various things.  I asked her what colors they were.  (The ribbon about the remote control was tie-dye blue.)  I asked her how she knew what each color meant and she said that she has a chart in the files that tells her.

Whew!  From the outside looking in, that seems like a very convoluted way to remember things.  But on the other hand, I have no method whatsoever.  Maybe I'll give it a try.

"Potentially" the Right Answer

I was just reading an article talking about learning conversation scripts. That reminded me of a funny story.

I took Meredith to the doctor to check out something or the other, whatever it was I can't remember anymore. What I do remember is that the doctor asked Meredith whether something on her body hurt. Meredith answered, "potentially," not in a sarcastic way, but in a matter of fact manner.   The doctor and I laughed heartily and then explained to Meredith that the question the doctor asked was a "yes" or "no" question. Then we really had a belly laugh--Meredith responded by saying, "Whenever I ask my Dad a yes or no question, he answers 'potentially.'"

Taking Mental Pictures and Triggering Mental Slide Shows

Meredith says that she's been taking "pictures" ever since she can remember--that is, she takes a mental picture to remember something.   (To be more accurate, Merebith takes the picture with her camera as you probably guessed!)   It reminds me a lot of the children's book series, "Cam Jansen," where the main character is nicknamed "Cam" because she takes pictures of everything like a camera by blinking her eyes, which helps her in solving small mysteries.   Or on a grown up scale, I'm reminded of the new T.V. series, "Unforgettable," in which a detective uses her ability to remember everything she's seen and to take mental pictures of crime scenes to help solve crimes.  Maybe this ability to take pictures is more common than we realize.

One picture thinker I know defies the male stereotype by noticing any little difference in his house...like a new photo frame, a new pillow, or whether a knick knack moved to a new location.  He explains that all he does is compare the before and after pictures he has in his mind--like those "find the difference" games in magazines.

Apparently, some visual thinkers can combine all of these individual pictures (or "slides") to make up a slide show--sort of like swiping from photo to photo on an iPhone, only much, much faster.  If you saw the movie, "Temple Grandin," it would be very similar to the scene where she hears "shoes" and begins to see pictures of all the different kinds of shoes she's ever seen in a very fast slide show fashion. 

Here's an example of one of Meredith's slide shows.  We recently moved only two houses away from our old house.  A family with a young girl moved into our old house and Meredith often goes to play with her at her house.  Meredith says that everytime she enters the old house, all of her memories from living in that house start playing.  All 11 years of memories from that house!  She described the memories as slides that appear only for a nanosecond each, but all together, they last for about an hour.  She can't control it--it's an automatic response that goes from start to finish.  I asked Meredith if she can turn those pictures off, but she responded, "It's like putting a dollar in a vending machine. Once you put it in, you can't take it out." 

I assume this automatic memory response happens to most people, but on a smaller scale?  Like whenever I smell curry, I think of my trip to India.  But my memories are pretty vague and definitely don't appear as a slide show in my mind.  Or whenever I use my teaspoon set when cooking, I think of the different advice my mother and my best friend's mother gave me about whether to pour the ingredient into the teaspoon over the batter or over the sink.  But triggering 11 years of memories from start to finish every time you walk into a childhood home?  That's amazing.

I asked Meredith what her first memory in this slide show was, and she said it was coming in to the house for the first time...as a baby.  OK, this is where my radar goes up and it really is hard for me to believe that.  She said she remembers me looking at her with bags under my eyes (hmmm, maybe she does remember!) and she remembers her Dad gazing at her with the extreme love of a new father.  Lastly, she describes leaning over her crib and watching her drool drop down to the floor.  Who knows.  I do find it interesting that she wasn't describing memories as if she filled in the blanks after seeing baby pictures of herself.  She was describing things that she saw from her point of view. 

Ironically, as I'm sitting here writing this, Meredith and I were looking at this photograph of her on the bookshelf.  A company had come into her preschool (without the parent's prior knowledge) and dressed the kids up for these slightly over-the-top pictures.  Meredith started telling me how she was really upset that day because people were dressing her in different clothes--besides the cowboy getup, she said they dressed her in fairy wings.  Again, I had no knowledge of this because I never even knew that this was taking place.  She said they made her sit on a ladder in front of really dark background walls, and she just didn't like it.  The thing about this is that she was only 2 1/2 years old when that picture was taken.  I didn't really think it was possible to remember things from that young of an age.  So, maybe there is something to what she says... 

I would love to hear if anyone else can take mental pictures or has memories from a very young age--say under 3 years old.  Please share your stories! 

Clockwise or Clockconfused?

My garage door opener bit the dust.  I saved it for my kids so they could take it apart---they love to explore stuff like that.  When I brought it out to work on, the first step was to take out a screw.  Meredith took on the task and started turning the screwdriver to the right to unscrew it.  My husband and I chimed in right away like all parents do in that sing-songy voice: "Lefty Loosey, Righty Tighty."  Meredith still has some difficulty with left vs. right.  To be oh, so helpful, we chimed in again, "Right is clockwise and left is counterclockwise."

Meredith told us that she never understood that, because clockwise goes right at the top of the clock, but then turns left at the bottom of the clock.  It took a second for me to understand what she meant, but then I could see her problem.  She had a very good point!  I guess everyone makes the assumption that when you say that clockwise is to the right you mean that at the top (12), you go right.

This was yet another example of how it is so easy to take things for granted and make incorrect assumptions.  It is also a great example of the strengths of a visual or dyslexic mind.  Meredith saw the clock work in a way that I never even thought of.  It is time for all kinds of minds to be valued for their unique strengths.  I know that more and more is being done to address educating all kinds of minds, but I think there is a very long way to go. 

This is why I am so thankful for those who acted boldly and started the Odyssey School in Austin, Texas, because they are the embodiment of this view.  The tagline for the School is that they serve "Bright Children Who Learn Differently."  Last week, Odyssey School posted something on their Facebook page that impressed me beyond description.  They understand the basics that some children learn differently and benefit from a different teaching environment than public schools.  But, they are so far beyond that.  They understand that they are not only addressing deficits...they are nuturing unique strengths in students that may have otherwise not be realized:

     "Working 'for the kids' sounds good, feels good, looks good. But we are also working for ourselves - these kids can make our world better."

Can You Turn Your Brain Off?

I wish I had the ability to "turn off" my brain like my daughter.  Here is the story on how I discovered how she turns her brain off.

I picked Meredith up from swim practice and she was very excited to tell me that she was able to hold her breath for a whole length of the pool for the first time.  Her Dad, being a former swimmer, taught her some techniques to help her accomplish this goal.  On the way home, she said, "It's really easy if you just put your mind to it...Actually, you just turn your mind off."

Of course I then had to ask her if Merebith went to sleep when she turned her mind off.  Meredith said that actually, Merebith is given a tranquilizer to make her faint.  For Dogot, she presses his reset button because he'll be out of it for awhile.  I asked Meredith who was the one to give Merebith the tranquilizer shot.  She she that it was one of the "hands" with the Mickey Mouse gloves on it.  Meredith explained that basically she controls these mechanical hands when she needs to do something to Merebith or Dogot.  Ah, now I remember.  She talked about a hand coming out to tickle Merebith to give her the feeling of guilt.  This is one of the many mechanical hands that she uses in her mind.

Back to tranquilizing Merebith...  Meredith said that she laughs at Merebith when she is sleeping after being shot with the tranquilizer because she mumbles things like, "Dogot...Dogot, don't touch...the computer," and "What...should..I wear?"

Dogot, on the other hand, mumbles other words while he is sleeping: "Bark...bark...bark."  I don't mean bark like "ruff, ruff," I mean he actually says the word, "bark," because as you know, he is a robot after all.

Taken to Heart

Our family was watching TV and a person was talking about how he needed a heart transplant.  Meredith asked me if you are still the same person if you get an organ transplant.  I put two and two together and asked her, "Do you think you would lose all your feelings if you got a new heart?"  "Yes," she said, quite seriously.  There is that literal, pictorial mind again.  Sweet and sad at the same time that she wondered about that.  I was wondering how she pictured love residing in her heart.  Did she see literal pictures of feelings sitting in her heart like she sees Merebith in her brain?  I got the chance to ask her that yesterday and she thought about it for a minute and responded, "Mom, Merebith is only in my brain--she hasn't left Brainsburg [that's where Merebith lives and works] and gone other places in my body."

We had a lot of fun thinking about how Merebith could take some travels around Meredith's body.  Maybe she could jump in a gondola and travel around on the blood, visiting different organs.  But then Meredith said that every time she moved, Merebith would be tossed around against her body.  I guess this doesn't happen when Meredith is in her brain, because she isn't in Meredith's literal brain...she's really just in her mind. 

Look to Mental Pictures to Judge Emotional States

Yesterday, Meredith had a bad day and came home crying saying that she was depressed.  She even missed her soccer game because of it.  The problem was that I couldn't pinpoint the source of her emotions. It's not as simple as asking her what is wrong, because often she can't find a way to express her emotions and asking her sometimes just makes her that more upset. Usually she will show that there is a problem by crying, refusing to do anything I ask her to do, getting upset with any little inquiry or suggestion I make trying to help her, and being very over reactive to any minor stress. In these situations, the only thing that I have learned to do is to give her lots of space, remove any stresses, and provide opportunities to refuel her right brain like drawing, watching TV, listening to music, or playing with her dolls.

So, she watched lots of TV, drew me a picture, sang and danced in her room, and had lots of good snacks.  I didn't insist she go to her soccer game, do any chores, and made sure her little brother stayed far away.  After dinner, she came into my room and we were able to talk rationally about what was bothering her.  She had mentioned a few times last week that she was struggling with some math concepts--the relationships between fractions, decimals, and percents in particular--so I thought this could be it...especially since I knew these are generally difficult concepts for a visual thinker like Meredith to grasp.  And sure enough, that was it. 

Meredith said that she just doesn't get the concepts and can't process what her teaching is saying.  She has always struggled with these concepts in math.  She says that all she hears is "Blah, blah, blah."  Not in a disrespectful way at all--just that she literally can't process what she is hearing; it doesn't mean anything to her.

Over the last few months, I have learned a really good way to judge how Meredith is feeling or what problem she is experiencing by asking one simple question: "What's Merebith doing?"  Meredith told me that during math class last week, Merebith was in a coma being kept alive by a machine.  And because Merebith is Meredith's "Control Center," (according to Meredith) no learning was happening...the factory was closed essentially.  That gave me a pretty good idea about how math was going for her lately and what her emotional state was.  Merebith always displays an exaggerated version of how Meredith is feeling--she's like a cartoon character in that way.  This exaggeration is really helpful because it leaves me little doubt as to what Meredith is feeling!

I know that Meredith really enjoys geometry (hello again visual-spatial strength!) and so as a contrast, I asked her what Merebith does when she is doing geometry.  Meredith told me excitedly that Merebith wears a T-Shirt that has a lot of colorful shapes all over it and the words, "Math Rocks!"  She also wears a visor and has a pencil tucked behind her ear.  Usually, Merebith is furiously doing math on her paper because she loves it.

Continuing with this topic, I asked her if Merebith acts in any peculiar ways if she is having trouble or having a lot of success in other subjects at school.  The one thing she told me was that in Language Arts, a lot of the time Merebith has a frog stuck in her throat.  Merebith gets a frog stuck in her throat when Meredith is trying to figure out what a particular figure of speech means (Meredith understood the irony that Merebith is acting out a figure of speech during these times).  Until Meredith understands the figure of speech in question, Merebith continues to choke and Dogot uses the Heimlich Maneuver (in his robotic nature) to try to dislodge the frog.  Once Meredith understands what the figure of speech means, Dogot successfully dislodges the frog from Meredith's throat and it goes flying across the room and hits a wall--splat! 

At least I know that Meredith understands irony...

Mental Color Mixing

Meredith drew me this very simplified version of her "Colorator 3000x."  The Colorator 3000x is a color mixer that Meredith uses in her mind.  Apparently there are many, many more colors than the four that are shown in her picture, and they are "true" colors--not like how sometimes the color on a marker doesn't match the actual color it writes on paper, according to Meredith anyway.

The Colorator 3000x is pretty straightforward.  You press the colors that you want to mix, and then pull the lever.  The spoon will automatically stir the colors.

This is all good, but I couldn't figure out when Meredith would use this machine.  After asking her that question a couple of times, she told me that she uses it when she learns new words.  "Like 'important,'" she tells me.  "It's purple.  I have a color and a picture for every word."  This was news to me--I didn't know she had a color for every word.  (The picture for the word "important," by the way, is Benjamin Franklin signing the Declaration of Independence...she doesn't know why, but it makes sense to me!)

Then Meredith told me, "And there's a manual, too.  One day, I was so bored, I made all the possible color combinations and wrote them down in a manual for Merebith.  It will say 'fushia plus teal equals...'  It took forever." 

Who knows how many color combinations she must have made because colors are such a big part of her life.  She just told me there are 8-9,000 different combinations in the manual.  Could that really be possible?!?

Knock, Knock...It's Time To Breathe!

You may remember from my earlier post that Meredith is enjoying swimming on a team again.  Last week, we were talking in the car on the way home from practice once again about how you can really lose yourself in your thoughts when you're swimming.  Meredith told me that sometimes she gets so much into her own world when she's swimming that she forgets to take a breath.  No problem--Merebith always comes to her rescue!  When it's time for some oxygen, apparently Merebith will knock on Meredith's head (from the inside) all the while grabbing her throat looking like an exaggerated cartoon character who is gasping for air.  That just makes me giggle.

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Watching T.V. Shows...In Your Mind

"Do you know what I do in school when I'm done with my work?" Meredith asked me.  "I watch SpongeBob."  Now, I had just learned about how Meredith thought in pictures and in movie snipets, so I had a feeling she didn't mean she actually got to watch a cartoon at school.  She explained that she can close her eyes and watch SpongeBob in her mind whenever she wants.  Hard to believe, for me anyway.  I later learned that she also has Merebith edit the cartoons to take the commercials out.  It really interests me to think that she can do this--that she can repackage her visual memories, let alone watch t.v. shows in her mind.

When I was working with Dr. Florance, she told me that she had a client who once told her that on Saturday nights, he would make some popcorn, settle down in an easy chair, and watch a movie...in his mind!  I wonder if those people who seem to remember every movie reference have this ability as well...I certainly don't!

It is hard for me to imagine how one does that so I had to take Meredith's word for it.  But one time not too long ago, I was able to witness for myself that she can do this.  Meredith had wanted to listen to some CDs in her room, so we got a CD player from Goodwill and found some old CDs from when she was younger.  The first CD we put in was a Disney Princess CD.  For some reason that I can't remember, Meredith was upset at that time and was rolling around the floor in distress, as happens when she is really stressed out about something.  Then suddenly, she stopped, closed her eyes, and started moving her finger in the air in concert with the music.  At the same time, I saw that her eyes were moving under her eyelids, like when you do when you're in the rapid eye movement phase of sleep.  It became very clear to me that she was watching the Disney movie that corresponded to the music.  After a few minutes, I asked her if she was watching the movie and she said yes.  I asked her to describe what was going on and she described it in great detail, including what each character was wearing.  Seeing it for myself was quite something. 

If you have a very visual child who is upset, maybe you could try to elicit some visual memories through music like the above example.  Using visuals is a very good way to recharge the Executive Functions of a visual thinker.  Sometimes, visual thinkers can get stuck in a loop of sorts, repeating the same thing over and over or simply getting in a place they can't find a way out of.  This is the verbal thinking pathway experiencing a glitch. 

I have had success bringing out puzzles and other visual-spatial games to help get Meredith unstuck.  One good thing to do (besides STOP talking!) is to start playing with the game you brought out and pretend like you don't know what to do with it (instead of ASKING your child for help).  For example, we have a magnetic mosaic game which comes with patterns to copy.  I started trying to make one of these patterns and purposely acted confused (without talking).  Meredith quickly jumped in to do it herself and within a few minutes, she was able to calm herself down. The hardest thing to remember is to keep quiet.  Talking just requires more energy of the child to listen, which is a function of the verbal thinking pathway.  In these situations, you want to bring the child back into her most comfortable environment--the visual environment. 

What Do People in Your Life Taste Like?

It all started when we were running late for school this morning.  Meredith didn't have time to have breakfast at home, so we were going to get her breakfast at a local coffee shop near her school.  We were near a McDonalds and I asked her whether she would rather have that instead.  Meredith told me she hates McDonalds because she is learning in science class about all the chemicals McDonalds puts in it's food.  Then she said, "Mom, I've memorized all the tastes, and McDonalds hamburgers taste a lot different than TerraBurger hamburgers."  (TerraBurger is a local "fast-food" alternative that serves organic food.)  "Let me taste it...first the McDonalds hamburger...[she tastes it]...then the TerraBurger hamburger...[she tastes it]," she went on.  "Wow, they taste so different!" 

I've heard that some synesthetes get specific tastes in their mouths when they hear a particular name or word.  So, I asked Meredith if she tastes anything with certain words.  She told me that she can think of anything and get the taste in her mouth--getting the pleasure of the taste without actually eating.  But I asked her again about whether specific names gives her specific tastes without her trying.  Then she went on to tell me the tastes that she has for some specific people.  We started with one person who she didn't get along with when they first met.  "First, she tasted like a sour green apple.  But now she is a brownie," Meredith explained. 

Hearing this, I'm a little confused, because it doesn't sound like a synesthetic experience, because those don't generally change over time (that I'm aware of).  And I was hearing Meredith really  describing associations, which makes sense with a lot of other things she has told me.  For example, she has a (mental) file on important people in her life and in the file, she sees words that describe that person, in a font that she associates with that person. 

I asked Meredith what her taste for me was, and she didn't answer right away.  Then she told me that Dogot had messed up the computer because sometimes the magnet inside him does that if he is too close to the computer.  Because Dogot was no longer able to type in the name of the person she was thinking of to get the taste, she had to go to the backup paper files.  She looked in the files for about a minute, and finally found the file and told me that I was a 20-layer, double fudge chocolate cake.  Phew!  I thought I might taste like dirt or something!!!  Meredith's Dad and brother also taste like a 20-layer cake, which is nice to hear.  What this told me, however, is that her "tastes" for people are not synesthetic; they are associations that she is making.

Associations.  Making associations is the absolute strength of a visual thinker.  Dr. Cheri Florance calls the engine of the visual thinking pathway the "Associator," as compared to the engine of the verbal thinking pathway, which is the "Sequencer."  Visual thinkers make associations, connecting information to something they already know.  My husband has explained to me that if he or Meredith don't have any context, there is nowhere to put new information.  That is why it is important to provide context up front to a visual thinker.  Provide the big picture so they know where to make the connections.

Love Taking Over This Visual Thinker

A young lady that I know very well, who will remain nameless for fear of embarrassing her, has been developing a crush on a boy for quite awhile.  When her mother picked her up from school, the young lady hesitated but then said, "I think I'm...I think...I think I'm in love," as if she finally succumbed to the illness.  The young lady said that when she looked at her name on her math paper earlier that day at school, she suddenly saw her name transform into the name of the boy she likes.  She said that now whenever she looks at a word, she sees the word transform into his name.  Not only that, his name is in the font and color of the word she is looking at.  The drive home from school is through an urban environment where there are lots of store signs, billboards, etc.  At one point, half giggling and half exhasperated, the young lady had to put her head down so she wouldn't have to see his name all over the place!

Then the young lady continued with her story and told her Mom that also during math class, she suddenly "woke up" from being in her own little world and found her paper filled with hearts that she didn't remember drawing. There was one giant heart with the boy's name written inside of it. She said that she was sort of talking to herself trying to figure out what had just happened. Her classmates were puzzled at what she was talking about.

I hope for the mother's sake that this phenomenom doesn't continue for it would sure be hard to explain why her daughter has been so distracted in class.  "Well, you see...when she looks at words, all she can see is this boy's name..."  I'm sure that will be a first!

All in the Family

Although the focus of the blog is on my daughter Meredith, I wanted to tell you about my son Tyler as well.  Although (so far) Tyler does not seem to possess the same visual processing style as Meredith and my husband with the filing cabinets and assistants, he certainly shows signs of having pretty exceptional visual skills.

When Tyler was six, we walked into the living room to see him quietly drawing away on a piece of paper.  He had been watching Star Wars, but paused it on a frame of Yoda.  When I looked at what Tyler was drawing, I was shocked.  This is what he drew:

Now, I realize I'm Tyler's Mama and as such, I'm hugely biased.  But even trying to keep my objective hat on, I think this drawing is pretty remarkable for a six-year old.  I'm not sure too many adults could draw that off the tv with such symetry.

Here is another example of a Pokemon character the Tyler copied from a book at the same age:

And just today, Tyler told me that he does in fact have some colors for letters and days of the week, indicating that he is also a synesthete (i.e., someone who experiences synesthesia) like Meredith (see this earlier post on Meredith's synesthesia).  Just for the record, Tyler said his days of the week are colored as follows: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  He described his letter "a" as illustrated below.  Tyler spent time with me on the computer to get the turquoise background, the font for the letter "a", and shadow on the letter just right.  I find it interesting that it is three-dimensional.  As with most synesthetes, the colors and details are very, very specific.  That's usually how I know that someone is actually "seeing" the color and not just making it up. 

I'm going to keep this as a record and see if it remains stable over time.  If you are a synesthete, you too can record your synesthetic experience for a large study called the Synesthesia Battery that Dr. David Eagleman is conducting at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. 

I once corresponded with a doctural student in England who studied at what age synesthesia emerges in children.  She found that it seems to emerge in the early elementary years.  This could be why Tyler never said he had colored letters before, but now he does--he's now in Second Grade.

This discussion about Tyler illustrates two points that I want to share with you:

     (1) Visual thinking is genetic, and
     (2) Sibling IQs are closer than you think.

Dr. Cheri Florance says that brainprints -- or basically the way you think -- is genetic to some degree.  It is very commonplace that if there is one predominantly visual thinker in a family, there will be many more. Take my family, for example. My father was an electrical engineer and designed nuclear plants. My mother was an English teacher, but also is a talented watercolor painter. My oldest brother is a brilliant engineer and mathemetician as well, and my second oldest brother is a talented architect (hello visual-spatial talent!). I have had various positions and interests, but have been drawn to the visual arts as well with photography (www.angelaeatonphotography.com). My youngest sister has found her niche in nature study and also has various visual arts as hobbies (www.montanapulpworks.com).  Those weren't shameless plugs--just wanted to give you something to look at!

Doctors, engineers, mechanics, artists, hair stylists, graphic designers, computer programers, first responders--these are all examples of highly visual career paths.  It is interesting to look at people's hobbies as well.  If you have a highly visual person in your family, look at a little closer at the family picture to see if you see this trait more often than not.

To my second point, Dr. Linda Silverman (the person who coined the original term "visual-spatial") explains that siblings generally are within 5 - 10 points of each other's IQ scores (go here for more information).  I mention this because I think it is very common for parents to say that one of their children is gifted and the other is not.  Dr. Silverman discusses how often the second child will have very similar traits, but because they compete with the first-born child to some degree, their gifted traits may manifest themselves differently.  It is worth giving your "non-gifted"children a second look!

A note on "gifted."  Who really knows what gifted means.  There are many different definitions by many different institutions.  I don't like to toss that word around and proclaim to the world that I have "gifted kids."  What I have found, however, is a pretty high correlation with what I'm reading on the "overexcitabilities" and high-intensity nature of gifted kids and my own kids.  I have found the literature on the emotional needs of the gifted to be extremely helpful in dealing with my kids.  It is really in this context that I talk about gifted.