ASD and Amazing Visual Thinking

[visualthinking]

I have just found this trailer on Youtube about

I have heard of her/seen a documentary and read things written by her, but this trailer has had an amazing effect on how I understand my DD who has AS.

I watched the trailer with my DD and she explained to me how she thinks visually as is described here (like Temple). DD explained how her mind works like Google Image, and if you say a word like "window" to her, her mind brings up lots of pictures of different windows.

DD also explained how when she remembers things she has done she sees it in her head as if she is watching a film of herself, from a distance and she is able to do this as her mind has taken in every detail and can simply "replay" the whole scene. When she remembers a walk in the park she sees herself walking in the park from a distance like watching it on TV or in a film.

I would be fascinated to know if anyone experiences this or their DCs do?

I must say I can't wait to see this film! There was an article in the Times last Saturday on it too.

is the same trailer with some cast/production interviews/comments from Temple Grandin herself d

I like it because it shows how important her Mum was. Not giving up and promoting "Different not less". It shows me what I have to do as a Mum to someone with ASD.

Sorry - link didn't work

Yup, it's how my mind works as well. It tries to make sense of all words and sentences by seeing the pictures, which is why words with more than one meaning are often totally confusing for those of us who are visual-thinking and on the autism spectrum.

"He walked across the muddy bank". A bank is a place you get money from, yes? Er no. Apparently not in this sentence, but too late - my mind has given me images of every Bank branch it's ever seen, all filled with mud. No wonder we may get puzzled in classes and in conversations.

Hi Amberlight How are you getting on? (Aware of your situation)

Interesting about the "muddy bank". I really learn so much from you!

I can't believe I have had so little understanding for so many years. Phrases like "visual thinking" and "taking things literally" in a Tony Attwood book really haven't explained it to me in a way I can understand. But if I read your posts amber or watch that trailer, then I understand.

No. My DS is a reflective thinker!

(how am I getting on? Today, 2 days after chemo, very if you get the meaning of the colour green!) (but not too bad otherwise thanks...)

Having visual ASD is great fun sometimes - I can listen to conversations and find them so funny because of the way people use words with those different meanings and I misinterpret them. The 'film' that my mind creates is marvellously varied as a result! But it makes joining in with big conversations really tricky as I can completely misunderstand a point

And if a word doesn't have a picture-equivalent I have to guess its meaning, which makes it even more tricky. Concept words are hopeless for me.

Tell me more HisWife

Amber I guess the face sums it up here on this visual thinking thread (but the irony....)

I really feel for you as you are going through this.

A close family member of mine went through gruelling chemo. I hope you know that many people on Mumsnet are thinking of you. I hope you feel more comfortable as each day after chemo passes and that you are getting through your treatment. You are not alone amber. Strangers on the internet are on your side!

You talked about the "film" in your head. Would you say your memories are accurate when you describe them as "marvellously varied"?

Thanks - appreciated.

Yup, deadly accurate visual recall. They did quite a study of court cases and individuals with an ASD and found that our memories are excellent for remembering straight visual detail (usually), but we can give confusing answers if they ask the wrong questions or keep changing the question.

It takes me ages to piece together what someone's body language was doing, though - I can recall it like a film clip but it takes so long to focus in on what their body or face looked like, then try to remember what that means. Meanings can occur to me days or weeks later sometimes.

So you can remember the body language itself very accurately, but interpretation takes longer.

Its interesting about the court case study.

That's it, yes. I can replay it, but the wiring between what I'm seeing in my brain, what it means, and what I'm supposed to do about it is all a bit dodgy. Guess it's like trying to interpret a whole poem, but only being able to see one word at a time and concentrate just on that one word. It needs all the words to make sense all at once, really. So it is with body language, tone of voice, facial expressions, eye contact, positioning close or far away from someone...it all means one thing but which thing? And sometimes apparently it can mean two or more things at once which is completely beyond me.

Visuals distract him when he is trying to understand things. He learns best if you explain things verbally and give him time to process it and conclude.

If you give him visuals, he gets too many messages and shuts down.

That isn't to say that his visual processing isn't strong. It is in fact TOO strong and prevents him from engaging in the world. For pleasure and when there are no demands on him however, he enjoys technical drawing and visual problem solving like rubiks cubes etc.

I have Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) which means I have poor auditory processing abilities, or a listening disability. I am lucky in that I am a natural Visual-Spatial learner (right brain dominant) which helps me to compensate for or work around my cognitive disability.
I found out about this when i read I think in pictures , you teach in words:The gifted visual-spatial learner and found more information regarding the different learning styles we all may or may not have. There is another article by Lesley Sword The power of Visual Thinking
The term Visual-Spatial learner was coined by Linda Silverman when researching children who had ADD and ADHD in the 1990s Her colleague Allie Golon has also produced some interesting articles about living with Visual_Spatial learners

I am pretty sure that both Dd1 and Dd3 store memories in this way.

They seem to store a whole picture so that when I say for example "Do you remember when we went to fetch grandma from the airport", they would be able to tell me What I was wearing, what the weather was like and where we parked the car!!

Yet... if I give more than one verbal instruction at a time, only one is remembered!!

It is totally amazing how this works isn't it..

Amber The poem analogy is a brilliant way to explain it.

HisWife Your DS's visuals must be overwhelming.

Ineedalife Yes, my DD can barely do one verbal instruction at a time and it really frustrates me but I am getting better at coping with it.

My most moment was walking down the street with DD and her explaining that she was still seeing all the houses that we had passed (the houses BEHIND her) in perfect detail, every window, rooftile etc whereas I was barely noticing anything except what was ahead. In her head she was seeing it like a film and seeing us from a distance. And yet we had not stopped and studied each house.

Wow dolfrog - great links. Thanks for that - you really know your stuff.

My AS ds once told me that different numbers have different colours (and different months do too).
And he can draw an accurate map of a car journey that we've been on (well, it looks like spaghetti but every twist and turn corresponds to a real one). When I asked him how he knew it was an actual road turning, not just a bend, he said he remembered the indicator noise!
So I guess that's not just visual, but playing back the sound + visuals like a film.
No wonder he's too distracted to notice other stuff (like people saying hello....).

Swiddle, sounds like he's synaesthetic as well as AS. Wonderful!

Yup, the whole 'hello' thing is a complete mystery to a fair number of us. If someone's there, obviously they're there, otherwise they wouldn't be there. So what's 'hello' for? Serious question. Get a group of aspies together and quite often we won't bother with hello, goodbye, 'how are you' or any other social niceties - we just go straight for info-sharing Makes more sense to some of us...

I thought everyone had some kind of visual memory - I know I don't use it for phone numbers etc; that's just memorised but for basic memories of past events?

Aye, and with an ASD it's all a matter of 'how much'. Most people can remember things...but some of us can remember every detail of every day exactly like a continual running video tape that can be re-played exactly like re-watching it on the tele.

Is there a way of assessing if your DC is like that? DSs Psych report showed he was above average on visual, below on verbal and very low on processing?

Not any ready tests that I know of - it's more through just asking and realising how much detail some of us store and for how long.

Im a visual thinker. Everything thing I think is in either pictures or film clips. I can make the pictures move when I want to as well.
If I listen to music I 'see' the most beautiful shape and colour display.
Numbers, music, words etc all have colours.
When I was young I described everything in colours! So if I had a graze it would tell mum my leg was brown, rather than saying sore.

I don't have asd.. It's just the way I think .. But until I saw a YouTube clip of temple grandin speaking I thought everyone did it!