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Gena
10-28-2011, 12:27 PM
Does anyone have experience with face blindness (http://autism.about.com/od/SymptomsofAutism/f/What-Is-Face-Blindness-Prosopagnosia-In-Autism.htm), especially occurring with autism?

We are starting to suspect that DS may have this. We’ve always known that DS is “bad with faces” and has a very difficult time recognizing familiar people. In the past we always attributed it to his vision issues, his age, or just a lack of paying attention. However, we saw his pediatric ophthalmologist (PO) earlier this week discussed this question. The PO was genuinely surprised to hear that DS has this difficulty. Although DS does have mild vision impairments, his vision is good enough that he ought to be able to recognize faces at a close to moderate distance. Several recent incidents and DS’s frustration with them have made it clear that it isn’t a matter of not paying attention or not thinking people are important. He’s definitely past the age where he ought to be able to do this, even with his social delays. The PO thinks it’s a neurological/psychological issue and advised me to find a someone who specializes in face blindness.

DS can identify car makes/models with a quick glance, but he cannot recognize his classmates, relatives, family friends, and sometimes even DH or me. Here are some examples:

- Last weekend, we ran into a classmate at the pumpkin patch and DS had no idea who the little girl calling his name and waving at him was. The other child was disappointed by DS’s lack of recognition/response.
- Last month we ran into one of his therapists at a community event. Despite the fact that DS has worked with this man twice a week for three years and he is one of DS’s favorite therapists, DS had no idea who the guy was until I told him. Once I told DS, he was thrilled to see this therapist and greeted him appropriately.
- Recently when we were at DH’s fire station, DS was looking for his Dad. Since all the fire fighters were in uniform, DS could not tell them apart, so he went up to each one, reading their name badges until he found his Daddy.
- Several times DS has attempted leave to public places with other Moms who have a similar body type and vocal tone as me.
- DS tells me that he always calls classmates the wrong name on the playground because he can’t figure out who is who.
- At family gatherings, DS cannot distinguish one uncle from another or one aunt from another, although he sees them all frequently.

I could go on all day with more examples.

This presents both safety and social issues. Since DS cannot always recognize familiar people, he has no sense of who is a stranger. Socially, this further impairs his ability to interact with his peers and causes DS a lot of confusion and frustration. Even relatives have a hard time understanding why DS does not recognize them.

Does anyone have experience with this? How do you/ your DC deal with it? What kind of therapy helps? What accommodations can be made at school or elsewhere? How do I help my little guy with this?

sariana
10-28-2011, 12:42 PM
I don't have any advice, but my DS has some of the same difficulties you describe when it comes to peers. His classmates or former classmates often greet him by name. If he notices them at all, he usually will only wave back. He rarely greets anyone by name and often tells me he doesn't know who they are.

Last year I requested the previous year's yearbook photos (we were new to the school in 1st grade) so that we could work on identifying students. Now that he is in 2nd grade we have last year's book as a reference.

I do make sure to inform DS's teachers each year that he struggles with recognizing people. I don't want them to think he is being intentionally rude or aloof.

DS is fine with family members. But teachers, coaches, and other adults can create problems.

He has been diagnosed with Asperger's (and ADHD, but I think this is an Aspie thing).

To be honest, I am not very good at face recognition myself. When I watch movies, I often am confused because I don't recognize a character from one scene to the next. (Darn those costume changes.) When I was teaching, I would joke with my students that they never could change their clothes. But really it's no joke.

Photos have helped me in the past, so that was the technique I tried with DS. He has improved, but he still is not good with peers. Everyone always seems to know his name, but he is not very good at reciprocating greetings.

He turned 7 in July. In many ways he has had huge growth in the last few months. But in this area he still struggles.

Uno-Mom
10-28-2011, 07:09 PM
Does he key into some certain feature like hair style, hair color, eye shape or smiles? I didn't follow your link so I'm not sure what info they cover. I have a few clients who were unable to recognize me when I dyed my hair... which clued me in to how they recognize familiar people. They were terrified, honestly, because my voice was coming from a total stranger! It took a while to get past that.

I haven't ever specifically addressed this concern for anybody, but I might start by finding out what features they DO focus on. Then maybe work with them to improve their analysis based on that.

The folks I know who have this do not use words to communicate. It's hard to know how they see things. But your son does use words, right? I think you've quoted him and you mentioned someplace that he can read. Now that you're identifying this concern, is there some way to prompt him to explain how he does organize his world?

lalasmama
10-28-2011, 11:00 PM
I have never been diagnosed with it, but I seriously believe I have facial blindness. Why? There are two male doctors I work with on a daily basis. Both men, both the same height/build/hair color/hair style/age. I have to wait for one of them to talk before I can figure out if it's Mike or Tom. I'm forever calling the wrong name, because I cannot tell who is who. I also work with two other doctors, who are female, and, again, look VERY similar. Even worse though, is that their names are both Melissa. I've just told them that I am very sorry, but that I'm likely going to always confuse them, despite working with them each every week, because they are just too similar looking for me to tell who's who. I tend to focus on clothing to help me figure out who is who. But let me tell you, as I have gotten older, it's gotten VERY embarrassing! I mean, here are these 4 people I work with, and I can't tell you who is who! THREE YEARS of these faces, and I can't tell you who is who without other clues.

I try to notice facial clues are different. For instance, Tom is slightly wrinklier in the face than Mike. But if they aren't next to each other, I can't see who has more wrinkles, and I'm thrown off... again.

Now, if people have different bodies/builds, I can easily tell them apart. For instance, one doctor I work with, we lovingly call "The Bald Giant". He's very tall, and bald, and kind of stocky despite his height, and there's no one else at work like that, so I know it's him. Okay, his Superman ties help some too. One of our other male doctors is short and stocky and has curly hair, so I don't have a problem there either, because he's the only one with those features.

I wonder if some of your DS's issue comes from seeing people outside of their normal environments. For example, he's not expecting to see Therapist Joe at the city fair, so that "clue" of who it is wasn't there for him.... Same idea with seeing Student Sally. He may love to swing with Sally every day, but Sally is someone from/at school, not someone at a pumpkin patch, so, in his mind, why would he see Sally away from school since she's a person from/at school. At times like these, I try to clue my daughter in to who we are about to see--"Hey, La, look! There's Megan from daycare! Imagine that! She likes the Children's Museum too!" so that DD has some idea of who she's looking for/at, and doesn't have to feel like the dunce I feel like when I can't tell people apart.

elliput
10-29-2011, 10:27 AM
:hug::hug::hug: We don't have any experience with face blindness, but I am sure it must be extremely frustrating for everyone. I hope you and your DS are able to find some sort of system which helps.

Gena
10-31-2011, 09:34 AM
Thank you for all the responses and support.



Last year I requested the previous year's yearbook photos (we were new to the school in 1st grade) so that we could work on identifying students. Now that he is in 2nd grade we have last year's book as a reference.

Photos have helped me in the past, so that was the technique I tried with DS. He has improved, but he still is not good with peers. Everyone always seems to know his name, but he is not very good at reciprocating greetings.

Does your DS do well with photos? My DS does not recognize people in photos unless he was there when the picture was taken. This makes me think he works off of his memory of the event rather than the picture. He does not recognize people in school pictures or photos that friends and family send to us.



Does he key into some certain feature like hair style, hair color, eye shape or smiles? <snip>

The folks I know who have this do not use words to communicate. It's hard to know how they see things. But your son does use words, right? I think you've quoted him and you mentioned someplace that he can read. Now that you're identifying this concern, is there some way to prompt him to explain how he does organize his world?

DS does seem to work off of certain features, like whether ot not the person wears glasses and their hair - color and style. He does not like when I get my hair cut and will spend a lot of time examining my hair afterwards. I know that he also uses body shape and vocal qualities to help him recognize people. Clothes also seem to be a factor, as we realized when DS could not find his Daddy among the all similarly dressed firefighters.

He also relies heavily on the location/context of where we are, which is why he gets upset and confused when we run into familiar people in places other than their usaul setttings.

DS is verbal, but it is very difficult to get him to explain how he experiences the world. He's better with concrete, tangible stuff. We are still working with him to identify his own emotions, and it's really hard for him to vocalize how he perceives things. We do keep working on it. When I try to get him to describe what different people look like, he generally names gender and hair color. When I press for other details he says, "I don't know."

Do you know any techniques to help him learn to express this sort of thing?


I have never been diagnosed with it, but I seriously believe I have facial blindness. Why? There are two male doctors I work with on a daily basis. Both men, both the same height/build/hair color/hair style/age. I have to wait for one of them to talk before I can figure out if it's Mike or Tom. I'm forever calling the wrong name, because I cannot tell who is who. I also work with two other doctors, who are female, and, again, look VERY similar. Even worse though, is that their names are both Melissa. I've just told them that I am very sorry, but that I'm likely going to always confuse them, despite working with them each every week, because they are just too similar looking for me to tell who's who. I tend to focus on clothing to help me figure out who is who. But let me tell you, as I have gotten older, it's gotten VERY embarrassing! I mean, here are these 4 people I work with, and I can't tell you who is who! THREE YEARS of these faces, and I can't tell you who is who without other clues.

I try to notice facial clues are different. For instance, Tom is slightly wrinklier in the face than Mike. But if they aren't next to each other, I can't see who has more wrinkles, and I'm thrown off... again.

Now, if people have different bodies/builds, I can easily tell them apart. For instance, one doctor I work with, we lovingly call "The Bald Giant". He's very tall, and bald, and kind of stocky despite his height, and there's no one else at work like that, so I know it's him. Okay, his Superman ties help some too. One of our other male doctors is short and stocky and has curly hair, so I don't have a problem there either, because he's the only one with those features.

Thank you for sharing your personal experience! It's very helpful to get your firsthand perspective. Have you always had this difficulty? If so, how did it affect your social interactions as a child? Have you ever addressed this with a medical professional? If so, what did they say about it? Do you explain your difficulty to people and how do they react?


I wonder if some of your DS's issue comes from seeing people outside of their normal environments. .

Yes, this is a huge issue for DS. For him, a big part of knowing who people are depends on knowing where they are supposed to be.

Aishe
10-31-2011, 06:01 PM
Sorry, no advice, but Oliver Sacks wrote a very interesting article for the New Yorker last year about prosopagnosia. He himself suffers from it. To access the article you either have to be a subscriber or pay $5.99. Or maybe you could access it at a library.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_sacks

lalasmama
11-02-2011, 01:04 AM
Thank you for sharing your personal experience! It's very helpful to get your firsthand perspective. Have you always had this difficulty? If so, how did it affect your social interactions as a child? Have you ever addressed this with a medical professional? If so, what did they say about it? Do you explain your difficulty to people and how do they react?

Yes, this is a huge issue for DS. For him, a big part of knowing who people are depends on knowing where they are supposed to be.

For me, the issue is really mild. Like I mentioned before, I have a hard time with 2 people in the same place that look similar in a "big picture" sort of way. I also have a bad time recognizing people out of "normal context". For instance, I ran into a lady at Toys R Us while Christmas shopping. She talked on and on and on like we saw each other all the time, and I knew I was supposed to know her. She sounded somewhat familiar, and looked like someone I may have known, but I couldn't place her for anything. 45 minutes of chatting between two stores, and I told my sister I was utterly confused. It was worse because my sister didn't know the person, so she couldn't help me. I couldn't figure out who it was until I saw the lady again. This time, she was at my clinic, with her two kids. Her kids had been through a heck of a bad fall/winter that year, and had been sick in the clinic WEEKLY. But I couldn't recognize the face I saw out of place-context.

I don't recall it being as difficult to place people when I was a kid, but I remember asking my mom a million times "who's that?" and her telling me, but acting like I should darn well know that it was like-a-cousin Susie's dad, or neighbor Megan's auntie that watches her after school every day. At some point, I guess she started pointing things out more--"Look, Mimi, there's neighbor Megan's Auntie Tonya!".... I don't recall it being much of an issue in high school. I remember early in my dating life it was there, though. I seriously remember thinking "Doug drives a green car, it's a Ford. He's short. His hair is short and the same color as mine. Look for a green Ford car with a short dark-blonde man driving it." We'd already met multiple times when this self-conversation happened, but if he had walked up to me, I would have had a problem greeting him like he would have expected!

As an adult, when I call someone the wrong name, I'm very open about it. "Oh, I just called you Lucy and you are Kayla. I am so sorry. I've actually got a touch of facial blindness and I get totally confused when people are the same height and hair color. I'll try to remember who is who, but will likely still get it wrong for a while." Most people laugh good-naturedly about it and think I'm joking until it happens multiple times.

I haven't seen any medical professional about it. I was always an awkward person. I just assumed the facial blindness was par for course. Most days it doesn't bother me enough to really "do" something about it. Other days, I worry that if I admit it, that along with other things, they will give me a diagnosis I'm scared of. (My best friend was diagnosed with Asperger's in his 30s. He was the only person I ever knew that could describe what it felt like to be me--from the facial blindness to the awkwardness to the bad motor planning to the obsessions. I'm scared to death of a similar diagnosis.)... So, at any rate, I try to make mental notes and associations regarding looks so that I can hope to recall them when I meet up with the person "out of context". It's not perfect, but it's what's gotta be done and dealt with.

Gena
11-03-2011, 12:55 PM
Thank you for elaborating on your personal experience. It's very helpful.

I think I really need to investigate this further for DS. Naturally it is upsetting for DH and realize that our son does not recognize our faces. But is the impact on his interaction with peers that really concerns us. The last wekk weeks DS has been having a lot of stress and anxiety at recess becuase he can't tell the "nice kids" from the "mean kids" and he doesn't know who his friends are. It makes me so sad for him.

elliput
11-08-2011, 06:18 PM
Gena- I thought you might be interested in this - Focus on: Autistic author Jane Meyerding (http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/autism-unexpected/2011/nov/8/focus-autistic-author-jane-meyerding/). She's also face blind.

Gena
11-09-2011, 10:42 AM
Gena- I thought you might be interested in this - Focus on: Autistic author Jane Meyerding (http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/autism-unexpected/2011/nov/8/focus-autistic-author-jane-meyerding/). She's also face blind.

Thank you for that. I'm going to have to get a copy of her book!