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!