prosopagnosia?

[jlp]

I don't know whether to mention this as we have a child and family appointment coming up this week but having some mild ponderings about G who's 6. It came to my notice a while ago that he doesn't seem to recognise people - in reception he came home really confused one day on an own clothes day as he didn't 'know anyone' in their own clothes.

 

He's just started a new school and one of the things highlighted on a recent report was that he's having problems knowing the childen's names, even children who he has played with quite frequently - they're dealing with this by putting the childrens names next to their photos that are already in class. But it also reminded me of times when he has thought someone was someone else who he plays with frequently because they had a clippered haircut as does the child he plays with.

 

Not explaining very well as having the life harrassed out of me trying to type this but will I look really neurotic if I mention this? Could he just not be very good with faces?

[Tez]

I think you should mention it but don't be surprised if they look at you blank. This is one of the biggest difficulties that A faces, and the older he gets, the more problematic it becomes. A's Consultant is really exceptionally good, she herself has a daughter with autistic traits, but when I first spoke to her about A's prosopagnosia she didn't know that there was any connection to ASDs. Having researched it after I spoke to her about it she now tells me that she is campaigning within our local health trust to raise awareness and to have some sort of screening added to their diagnostic procedures. Shows that she now considers it important.

Edited February 4, 2006 by Tez

[Zemanski]

it seems that this is a more common problem than you would think, given the fact that there is very little awareness of it amongst professionals

 

the thing is, you might sound paranoid but if your son does turn out to have this then he has a second disability that has a huge impact on his ability to develop social communication skills and he needs support and help with it now not in 5 years time when you realise you should have investigated it in the first place. If he doesn't then you can breathe a sigh of relief.

 

the trouble is it is pretty difficult to find someone who even knows about it, never mind a specialist who can diagnose or even investigate it.

 

There are ways of telling quite easily with some forms - ask your son to look just at your nose and tell you what else of your face he can see at the same time. Com sees the nose, or whichever feature he focuses on, and the rest just fades out to darkness. Com (13) can see a face in a photo but never realised that he was supposed to see the same thing when looking at a person.

 

Com is developing his own strategies for recognising people now he knows that all our emphasis over the years on reading faces is pretty useless to him and he is doing much better. He's going to see Ian Jordan soon to see if lenses and lighting can help - we already know that irlen lenses help with some of his perceptual problems (he has difficulty with 3D vision too) but Ian's systems are far more accurate and should be able to help him a lot more.

 

I take it you've read other threads on this and know that Ian is the best person to talk to for advice - he's been brilliant with advice on Com's problems - thanks, Ian

 

Zemanski

[OPooh]

TBH who cares if you do look neurotic - better to ask and be wrong than not ask and be right. Good luck.

 

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[kirstie]

Yes, i would definatley mention it. My son isn't too bad but he will ask a lot "What's your name again?" and finally it will stick.

Hope the professionals can help.

[ksasnic]

crumbs - this is pretty interesting.. Nick does this to a certain extent. some people he will recognise and others he just doesn't... even members of our family like an aunty - we show him photos and he just guesses - you show him one photo of the person and you tell him then show another of the same person but different clothes and he has forgotten again or just doesn't recognise... short term memory !! and as to names he will be out playing with these 2 girls and when I asked him who he was playing with its I don't know there names... so you get him to ask and he's forgotten again... hmm might check this out with him do a few tests with him on recognition... and see what gives

[Ian Jordan]

remember those with prosopagnosia use other clues to determine identity.

 

these include

 

hair shape and colour

clothes

gait

posture

speeech

environmental clues - such as where a person is

language clues

etc

 

In addition when prosopagnosia is present it is common to have hearing / sensory processing problems - thereby making it even more difficult to ascertain emotion.

 

If your child is asking a name it may be to attach to memory other than facial recognition - e.g. body shape / posture

Optical professionals usually have not even heard of the condition never mind know how to deal with it! It won't show up on an optometric / ophthalmological assessment.

 

Remember blind people can recognise you using parallel methods of processing emotion - your child thinks their processing is normal - and if you have ever said "don't be silly" when they were describing symptoms they will remain quiet - and stay quiet about their symptoms.

[jlp]

Thank you for the replies - it is interesting.

 

Is there anyway I can find out this is a possibility? All I can think of is finding some photos of friends / family members - but most seem to be in a context that you could guess at anyway? Maybe if I can find some photos of familiar people in unfamiliar context if that makes sense - say G's Godmother in her own house where he doesn't visit as he has allergies to her pets? Would I refresh his memory by showing him a different photo of her first?

 

Sorry to sound clueless and it may be nothing but not sure how to find out if it is a possibility or not?

 

I haven't seen any other threads on here but will have a search now.

[ksasnic]

Has anyone of your close family been in a newspaper clipping - I am going to get the photos out past and present... I did this with Nick earlier and talk about guessing- I had an old black and white photo of me as a young girl in the 70's (hideous dress-sense) and one of me in colour and I got the same reaction... er is that S***** (sister) - I then showed another photo of my nan taken when she was a girl - that too was in black and white and was so much older she was in her guide kit with funny hats on and he said ooh look its you !!!! this he was definate about !! lol... gee thanks kid... all I can say is I have aged well !!!!

[pingu]

Hi there. I definatly think you should tell the doctor about this. I have posted a link to a site where you could read more about it. I was going to copy and paste but there is so many different links you would'nt get any benifit.

 

I hope all goes well

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia

 

shaz

[Tez]

I think the best site to gain an understanding of the difficulties it causes is here

[Ian Jordan]

Both sites state that there is no treatment. This is incorrect.

They are generally a good start to the subject (although not totally accurate) in many ways, the most important being incidence levels. I see perhaps 10 patients a week with prosopagnosia and can usually modify cognitive responses in seconds, suggesting that the aetiology is incorrect.

 

Simply put - facial recognition / emotion recognition is a treatable condition for most people, it is common in ASD, it should NOT be ignored as it is often one of the most severe disabilties encountered by those with information processing problems as it often results in severe social difficulties.

[jlp]

Well mentioned my concerns at the hospital and the practioner we see was very nice and didn't make me feel too mad for asking. She did point out that as G uses much less eye contact than most then he isn't getting to see their faces as much so will take longer to be able to identify them / remember names. Also that he will find other ways to identify people. She also wondered if it was remembering the names that might be a problem not the face.

 

It's all very confusing! I suppose when he's older it'll become clearer whether it's a real problem or not?

 

Edited to add - sorry the post on Com being able to see reminded me I never updated!

Edited February 12, 2006 by jlp

[Ian Jordan]

why doesn't he treat!

he didn't check whether it can be done - sorry annoyed at what is said to people when it is often possible to resolve these problems in seconds NOT years!

[carrieq]

Sorry abit late to this as we have been away!! Ds has problems with names and faces. We actually didn't notice until his teacher wrote in a report that he still doesn't know the names of a number of his classmates who he has been with for the last 2 and a half years. I think his speech problems have over shadowed this but I will bring it up again when we are back at the consultant next week.

Carrie