# My 6yo seems to have synesthesia **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 2, 2009, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-6yo-seems-to-have-synesthesia/512315 "2009-10-02T03:55:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Baracus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2bfe46/32.png) [@Baracus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baracus)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-6yo-seems-to-have-synesthesia/512315/21 "2009-10-02T18:37:21Z")
> [@Orange\_Skinner](#): > > I was trying to come up with something along the lines of what **Baracus** said, so that you could “test” her. I don’t have a better idea to offer myself, but I wonder how “confirmed” synesthesics would perceive the stimuli presented in that manner—would it be as he described, and the synestetic color perceptually trumps the “real” color? Or would the “real” color of the number combine with “her” color for it (like, if it were a number she thinks of as light blue and the number you showed her is yellow, would the result look greenish to her)? Or would each perception be experienced as distinct from the other (like hearing two different conversations simultaneously, but not having any trouble following along with them or distinguishing between the two)? Meaning, would she tell you that you’d colored the number, say, turquoise, but she still also “sees” it as whatever color she said she had perceived it as being before? I looked at the wikipedia page on synesthesia and it looks like my experiment as expressed would not really be very indicative. According to the wiki page, it would be more likely that she would name the right color but do so more slowly for the numbers that weren’t written with the “correct” color, similar to the “Stroop effect”. This is where a subject is asked to name the color of the ink a word is written in and will usually have a slower response when it is a color word written in a different color ink, i.e. “red” written in blue ink, than if it is a non-color word or a color word written in the same color ink. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-6yo-seems-to-have-synesthesia/512315/22 "2009-10-02T19:56:55Z")
I think it’s also worth pointing out that kids, a lot of the time, just spout bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![gurujulp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba9def/32.png) [@gurujulp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gurujulp)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2009, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-6yo-seems-to-have-synesthesia/512315/23 "2009-10-02T20:04:30Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > I think of time as an infinite line that stretches away from me in either direction. I find it actually interesting and surprising you envision it as some kind of spiral or helix, **gurujulp.** > > -SNIP [/COLOR] I used to fantasize that you could just jump from month to month. That’s how I always thought of time travel when I heard it. You would just be skimming along edges outside the loops until you swung back in. Kids do indeed spout bullshit- but it sounded like in this case the colors + numbers stayed consistent. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-6yo-seems-to-have-synesthesia/512315/24 "2009-10-03T00:12:25Z")
_shrug_ We’ll observe and see what happens, that’s all. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-6yo-seems-to-have-synesthesia/512315/25 "2009-10-03T00:22:12Z")
> [@gurujulp](#): > > Doesn’t everyone see the flow of time as a [spiralling thing](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dXDZmgVew5A/R4bEl_BbczI/AAAAAAAAAkU/TaDwCNnorfQ/s400/fractal-art-alfred-laing-spiral-fantasy.jpg)? Not exactly like that, but the thing I visualise is like the paper lights as a dna coil.. I visualize some sort of spiraling vortex. When I was a kid, I was raised in a Roman Catholic family, and the only thing that would freak the fuck out of me as I was going to sleep was the concept of never-ending consciousness. Somehow, I could almost understand it, and when I was imagining it, the idea of infinity was represented by something like a rotating cyclone that just went on and on and on and on. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-6yo-seems-to-have-synesthesia/512315/26 "2009-10-03T02:57:50Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > So, fun! Today she told me that weekdays have pictures and numbers have colors–though not, apparently, letters. That is incorrect. 2 is R. Scientific American had an article about this a few years ago. The way you can prove it’s ‘real’ is to hide a picture in what looks like a jumble of, for instance, numbers. A whole page of numbers that are all blue, but have all the 8’s in a hard-to-see pattern, will jump out if 8 really looks pink. [Here’s the article](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-is-synesthesia&page=2), unfortunately, online it doesn’t have the really illustrative diagrams that show good tests. If you hunt down the original magazine, it does. [Here’s the whole article in pdf](http://www.sciencecore.columbia.edu/demo/web/resources/readings/hearing.pdf), although the diagrams aren’t quite as amazing as I remember. Still, it gets the point across. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-6yo-seems-to-have-synesthesia/512315/27 "2009-10-03T03:28:23Z")
Oh cool, thanks. This is something I can use pretty easily. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-6yo-seems-to-have-synesthesia/512315/28 "2009-10-03T13:23:15Z")
> [@gurujulp](#): > > Doesn’t everyone see the flow of time as a [spiralling thing](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dXDZmgVew5A/R4bEl_BbczI/AAAAAAAAAkU/TaDwCNnorfQ/s400/fractal-art-alfred-laing-spiral-fantasy.jpg)? Not exactly like that, but the thing I visualise is like the paper lights as a dna coil.. No. If people visualize it at all, more people would probably think of it as a line in front and behind them like **cmyk** said. Why would it be a spiral? Where are the coils of the spiral going? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-6yo-seems-to-have-synesthesia/512315/29 "2009-10-03T15:20:28Z")
> [@Sofis](#): > > My understanding of the concept of synesthesia is that it involves actually percieveing the world differently. That is, actually seeing colours in letters or digits: synesthesia. Only associating them with colours, even if strongly: not synesthesia. However, I could certainly be wrong about that. And wikipedia mentions personalities, and other more conceptual things not directly related to how one percieves the world through one’s senses: Ah, okay. I’m not literally seeing the colors, it’s more like an association. Oh well. And C is and always will be yellow. And lemony or possibly cake like. Like eating a very succulent lemon cake, soft and spongey but with not too much give that you can just slice into it and it’s just the most perfect cake ever…what?! Stop staring at me like that. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-6yo-seems-to-have-synesthesia/512315/30 "2009-10-03T15:49:24Z")
I saw a program with a math genius who saw colors in numbers and that gave him some kind of a special ability to manipulate and understand math. It may be a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2009, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-6yo-seems-to-have-synesthesia/512315/31 "2009-10-03T23:16:36Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > I still think of the individual States in the colors they were in my US jigsaw puzzle. You stole mine! I went to a Montessori School, where they teach geography using jigsaw puzzles with little knobs (to pick the pieces up with) at the capitals. The coloring of each piece is pretty much standard. I actually recently found a map that I had colored with the appropriate colors, and I confirmed that my preconceived colors matched up. Oh, and we did every country in the world (and their capitals). No not knowing where Iraq is won’t happen to Montessori kids, that’s for sure. (Still can’t get used to the countries founded since 1990, though) ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2009, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-6yo-seems-to-have-synesthesia/512315/32 "2009-10-05T00:50:25Z")
> [@bup](#): > > That is incorrect. 2 is R. > > Scientific American had an article about this a few years ago. The way you can prove it’s ‘real’ is to hide a picture in what looks like a jumble of, for instance, numbers. A whole page of numbers that are all blue, but have all the 8’s in a hard-to-see pattern, will jump out if 8 really looks pink. > > [Here’s the article](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-is-synesthesia&page=2), unfortunately, online it doesn’t have the really illustrative diagrams that show good tests. If you hunt down the original magazine, it does. > > [Here’s the whole article in pdf](http://www.sciencecore.columbia.edu/demo/web/resources/readings/hearing.pdf), although the diagrams aren’t quite as amazing as I remember. Still, it gets the point across. No, no, no! It was disproved, according to _Wednesday Is Indigo Blue_. I have colors for graphemes, and I’ve never seen the shapes; asking around I’m not unique. Synesthesia does not necessarily have to be external. If you see this “5” in black, but you always think of 5 as orange, than you have synesthesia as much as someone who literally sees the five as orange. A simple syn test is to ask the person to writ down all their colors. Put the sheet away for a few weeks, then ask them again and compare. Note: Some people only have colors for part of their alphabet. So it may be that their answer for K and R vary wildly, while E is always the same shade of powder blue. The website [mixsig.net](http://mixsig.net) might be helpful with further questions. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-6yo-seems-to-have-synesthesia/512315/33 "2009-10-06T02:58:23Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > Monday has a bunny and Friday is a smoothie. Is she sure about the smoothie thing? Could it be a milkshake instead? ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-6yo-seems-to-have-synesthesia/512315/34 "2009-10-06T05:44:47Z")
Why? She’s had many more smoothies than milkshakes, so it seems natural to me that she would have the one in her head over the other. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-6yo-seems-to-have-synesthesia/512315/35 "2009-10-06T06:07:24Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > I saw a program with a math genius who saw colors in numbers and that gave him some kind of a special ability to manipulate and understand math. It may be a good thing. That may be [Born on a Blue Day](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Born-Blue-Day-Aspergers-Extraordinary/dp/0340899743). The guy has Asperger’s and is a savant. ---
**Author:** ![kittenblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ba8739/32.png) [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2009, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-6yo-seems-to-have-synesthesia/512315/36 "2009-10-06T12:13:47Z")
> [@dangermom](#): > > Why? > > She’s had many more smoothies than milkshakes, so it seems natural to me that she would have the one in her head over the other. LOL. I just hate the word smoothie, and they do look identical! ---
**Author:** ![Serenata67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/serenata67/32/10646_2.png) [@Serenata67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Serenata67)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2009, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-6yo-seems-to-have-synesthesia/512315/37 "2009-10-07T12:27:23Z")
Perhaps she has some kind of mnemonic device in her head to help her remember stuff and she isn’t either (a) understanding her own mnemonic or (b) not explaining her mnemonic clearly to you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-6yo-seems-to-have-synesthesia/512315.md?page=1)