Can't put names to faces

[Mother in Need]

My AS son simply cannot remember names. He spent a whole year in year 7 in the same tutor group, and could still only name 5 or 6 of them at the end. He can remember faces though, and will know whether that person is in his tutor group or not, but won't remember their name. Awkward when asked to hand out their notebooks (actually, that is a nightmare for him). The same applies for TAs that have worked with him, and probably lots of other situations I don't know about.

 

He also often does not remember things that have happened, esp when in meltdown, but not only then, I can tell him the same thing again and again over weeks, and he will say 'Oh, I didn't know that' every time (it seems this is genuine). And yet he can remember everything he has seen on a complex science programme...

 

Is this a particular memory deficit, long term, short term, medium or whatever (selective?), and are there other things he might have problems with that I haven't picked up on?

[zaman]

My son is the same re not being able to remember names. If we pass other children from his class going to and from school they invariably say hello to him by name, and when I ask him who they were he doesn't know. He was visited at school by an autism outreach worker who noticed this as well, and she gave the school some tips on getting him to remember them (small books of the kids photos that gradually gets increased, etc). Of course because of the sensitivities around photographic permissions of kids, this isn't something that I can help with at home though.

 

However, on other things, his memory completely outstrips mine. Whether or not this is a verbal/visual thing I don't know, but it seems to have the pointers really - ie if we are playing the card game pairs, etc

[Zemanski]

some links for prosopagnosia, also called 'face-blindness'

 

http://www.asd-forum.org.uk/forum/index.ph...wtopic=6474&hl=

 

http://www.asd-forum.org.uk/forum/index.ph...wtopic=6270&hl=

[zaman]

Wow. That was amazing to read all of that on those links. And also really sad, that this is another trait that the poor kid has to deal with - as well as being another one that I can't pronounce! I've been struggling to get OT support for the sensory integration issues that he has, and getting nowhere, and now there is something else that I need to deal with. (Sorry to sound so petty, but am still struggling to understand and come to terms with the whole autism experience). I was beginning to wonder about this names thing though . . .

 

He's only 5, and I've just read the link to the site that does this testing, and from what I have read it seems to need the child to be quite verbal - so presumably he would be too young?

[Zemanski]

better to find out now than at 13 like we did with Com - after 6 years in a class of 16 children Com knew the names of just 8, two of whom were the kids who bullied him!

 

I don't think kids have to be very verbal to test, if you're not sure PM Ian Jordan

 

one thing is that with prosopagnosia, while obviously the full inability to see a face is quite unusual, it is much more common to have milder versions where, like me, you can see a face but cannot retain a visual image of it and so don't recognise people even if you have seen them many times. I saw Dot's teacher/senco today, about 300 yards from school and didn't recognise him at all (he really is very distinctive) if I had been at the bus stop, halfway back towards the school, where we have met him before I would have had a 50/50 chance, in school I have no problem!

 

Autism is being increasingly thought of as a cluster of neurological conditions rather than a single condition and each child is seen to have a different set of these which combine to make up their individual package called autism or AS or whichever variant they have. Even if it isn't this is quite a useful way to look at it because it helps you understand that each person has a range of strengths and weaknesses to be considered relating to different aspects of their functioning - too often things are missed or dismissed as not central to the problem, particularly sensory issues but if you talk to AS people sensory issues are one of the things they see themselves as most affected by.

 

Zemanski

[polkadotty]

That's really interesting, Zemanski. I think i'll check out those sites as Corin says the exact same thing to me - i often put down his answers ('who was that little boy waving at you?' 'I don't know') as not feeling like replying, which is often the case. But he also seems to struggle a bit with names to faces. Hmm. I'm also getting a new assessment for ADHD or one its ilk - is it Donna Williams who says 'labels are for jamjars'?????

[Zemanski]

labels may be for jam jars but I disagree that they are not useful for children too - they are signposts that point you in the direction of knowledge, help and understanding of our children's needs.

 

getting a label was the single most useful thing that has come out of school for Com, although if he'd never started school in the first place perhaps he wouldn't need it so much?

 

Zemanski

[DaisyProudfoot]

I'm great at knowing faces but not names. I've always had a problem putting names to faces and I'm NT. The number of times we've had a new person in our office and I've just ended up giving them a name I can remember cos I tend to forget - we only have 12 people in our office takes me ages to remember names.

 

I'm forever giving my eldest son's girlfriend the wrong name - embarrassing or what!

[mum22boys]

Hi,

 

M has the same problem with his memory. He is only five and a half and yet has already discovered he has a problem. He has great trouble remembering the names of the kids at school or even members of our family. If you ask him several weeks in to the summer holiday to name the kids in his class by the class photo he can't do it. I did this to test him last year.

 

He also does not remember what occurs during a meltdown. But not sure if thats a memory problem or something that naturally occurs with meldowns.

 

He also has told me he can't remember what the teacher says in class. So if she talks to the class and tells them to do something then says something else he has no idea what he was told in the first place. He has trouble retaining information and is in a language group at the local hospital run by the SALT to help with his poor memory.

 

Also if M wants to talk to us and he constantly interupts others to talk he has to speak straight away otherwise he can't remember what he was going to say. we have also tested him on this and asked him to wait his turn to speak and when asked what he wanted he will not know and just say ' I love you mummy'.

 

mum22boys

[zaman]

Thanks for the info Zemanski - would you know if this is the same test done for Dyslexia? A friend recently had her kid tested and he now wears coloured specs, as if so, I'll get the name from her of where she had it done. (Sorry if I'm putting you on the spot!) And I'll PM Ian about the verbal issue.

 

Ta

[ceecee]

I have thought about this memory thing long and hard and have read a fair bit on it.What it seems to me is that for a lot of people with a.s. their short term memory is genuinally very poor and they seem to get easily confused and have trouble organising themselvesi.e. in that they are often unsure what things are planned from one day to the next.

 

However long term memory is often excellent down to remembering colours of things from years back.

 

With dsylexia memory is poor full stop long term short term it tends to make no difference.

 

Hope this helps.

[Zemanski]

memory of faces can be affected by general memory problems but it is more likely to be visual perception problems associated with prosopagnosia in ASC people.

 

the tests for coloured lenses through irlen and colorimeter systems only focus on reading and have little impact on other sensory problems - both Com and Dot have used irlen but only the tests from Ian Jordan gave any improvement at all for Com's facial recognition problems and although they did help a little with his depth vision Ian's colours give him more (Com can now see the outline of a face and more than one feature at a time )

 

this is the clinic link for orthoscopics

 

Zemanski

Edited March 15, 2006 by Zemanski