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.

Bloglovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

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.