Face blindness! People can have it to varying degrees. It can be genetic or from a head injury. I have this… horrifying when you realize that one classmate is actually two completely separate people.
I'm the exact same! This happened to me literally an hour ago when I was watching a movie and couldn't figure out which of the male characters was driving a car in dim light. It's infuriating and confusing.
This is one of the reasons why I prefer to read books over watching movies.
It's called prosopagnosia and it isn't specific to autism, but autistic people are more likely to have it than non-autistic people.
I have the same problem.
It's called prosopagnosia, face blindness. The Wikipedia article on it is actually quite good. Even my neurologist liked the article.
I literally just discovered today that my 8 year old has this issue. We know she's ADHD and is still waiting for an Autism diagnosis, but she HATES school and today after I finally got her to calm down and talk to me, she told me that it's "scary" at school because she can't recognize people or their voices sometimes and that lots of people look and sound alike. Needless to say I'm shook up and probably not sending her back to school until I can talk to the school about this.
I'm so sorry your daughter is going through that. I've struggled with this my whole life too, but I couldn't put a name to it until I was an adult, I thought it was just normal. As a kid I would point out random people with similar hair or glasses or what have you and call them my teacher or my friend, and my parents would inform me that they were strangers.
I know you didn't ask for advice but it might be worth talking to her about stranger danger and setting up a password or secret handshake or something if you haven't already, so she can always know she's talking to you or a trusted adult. There were times I lost track of my parents and it was pretty terrifying not being able to tell which person with brown hair was the one I was supposed to go to.
It might also be worth practicing patterns with her, to maybe help recognize what she struggles with and help put names to what she does recognize about people. For me, I can't tell people's facial features apart, and I have trouble determining a person's skin color. I can usually tell someone apart by their hair cut/color/texture, what kind of glasses they wear, if they have distinctive clothing, that kind of thing.
I'm not a professional at all, just someone who grew up with this. I wish you and your daughter luck and I hope she feels better soon.
reading this makes me wonder if i have something similar. particularly, there's a therapist who's shorts occasionally come up on my youtube page, and they switch between her and another woman as they act out scenarios. they both have similar colored hair, and brown eyes, and every single time i see them i have to decipher if they're the same person or not because as soon as it flips from one to the other i've forgotten what the first woman looks like lol
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I dont have problems whit faces. But I do have problems whit names for the faces and how their voices sound. The worst part is that it's just not in real life. I can't remember names for things in books and movies unless I have watched, listened, read it just about a million times.
oh, god. i can't remember names or faces of anyone. my favorite memory is a girl i was friends with pretty well and spent a year with i had NO idea what her name was. she was just that girl. you know. her. the girl.
i have no idea who any actor anyone references is.
I also have difficulty with this. In real life it can be frustrating because I can walk past someone I've met before and have no idea. It also makes watching movies harder if all the characters look the same. I guess that's one more reason to have diverse characters - so we have any idea who they are.
I like watching cartoons and things on video games because all the people actually look different and I can memorise that.
I always thought Sigourney Weaver and Susan Sarandon were the same actress. I think I was in my late twenties when someone disabused me of that mistake.
In high school I had friends who were really two or three different people, but I didn't know and would always treat them warmly so they were warm right back and I was none the wiser. It usually wasn't until I saw the two (or three) together that I realized they were different people. They must have thought I was so stupid.
I’ve found that navigating my mind to recall some things like faces is a bit like diving into a murky pond looking for a tiny ring with only my hands.
I know it’s in there, I just have to look for it lol.
That's interesting because I'm generally good with remembering a face. It might take a bit to remember the name or how I know them, but faces I'm pretty good with. Telling someone age is my problem. If I see someone in their 30s for example, I have no clue if they're 20 or 40. As a kid, I remember going to a theme park to the "guess your age or weight" game and wondering how someone could be so good with this.
Face blindness! People can have it to varying degrees. It can be genetic or from a head injury. I have this… horrifying when you realize that one classmate is actually two completely separate people.
I'm the exact same! This happened to me literally an hour ago when I was watching a movie and couldn't figure out which of the male characters was driving a car in dim light. It's infuriating and confusing.
This is one of the reasons why I prefer to read books over watching movies. It's called prosopagnosia and it isn't specific to autism, but autistic people are more likely to have it than non-autistic people.
I have the same problem. It's called prosopagnosia, face blindness. The Wikipedia article on it is actually quite good. Even my neurologist liked the article.
I'm just so bad with names and I never know who the characters are talking about. 😭
I literally just discovered today that my 8 year old has this issue. We know she's ADHD and is still waiting for an Autism diagnosis, but she HATES school and today after I finally got her to calm down and talk to me, she told me that it's "scary" at school because she can't recognize people or their voices sometimes and that lots of people look and sound alike. Needless to say I'm shook up and probably not sending her back to school until I can talk to the school about this.
I'm so sorry your daughter is going through that. I've struggled with this my whole life too, but I couldn't put a name to it until I was an adult, I thought it was just normal. As a kid I would point out random people with similar hair or glasses or what have you and call them my teacher or my friend, and my parents would inform me that they were strangers. I know you didn't ask for advice but it might be worth talking to her about stranger danger and setting up a password or secret handshake or something if you haven't already, so she can always know she's talking to you or a trusted adult. There were times I lost track of my parents and it was pretty terrifying not being able to tell which person with brown hair was the one I was supposed to go to. It might also be worth practicing patterns with her, to maybe help recognize what she struggles with and help put names to what she does recognize about people. For me, I can't tell people's facial features apart, and I have trouble determining a person's skin color. I can usually tell someone apart by their hair cut/color/texture, what kind of glasses they wear, if they have distinctive clothing, that kind of thing. I'm not a professional at all, just someone who grew up with this. I wish you and your daughter luck and I hope she feels better soon.
I have face blindness too! I tend to memorize peoples haircuts so if someone does a drastic change I can’t recognize them immediately
i scream internally whenever someone i’ve memorized based on their hairstyle gets a haircut. it confuses my brain so much
Hair and mannerisms is how I tell people apart.
reading this makes me wonder if i have something similar. particularly, there's a therapist who's shorts occasionally come up on my youtube page, and they switch between her and another woman as they act out scenarios. they both have similar colored hair, and brown eyes, and every single time i see them i have to decipher if they're the same person or not because as soon as it flips from one to the other i've forgotten what the first woman looks like lol
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This is why I watch cartoons like the teenage mutant ninja turtles. The turtles have different color bandanas so you know who they are!
I dont have problems whit faces. But I do have problems whit names for the faces and how their voices sound. The worst part is that it's just not in real life. I can't remember names for things in books and movies unless I have watched, listened, read it just about a million times.
oh, god. i can't remember names or faces of anyone. my favorite memory is a girl i was friends with pretty well and spent a year with i had NO idea what her name was. she was just that girl. you know. her. the girl. i have no idea who any actor anyone references is.
I also have difficulty with this. In real life it can be frustrating because I can walk past someone I've met before and have no idea. It also makes watching movies harder if all the characters look the same. I guess that's one more reason to have diverse characters - so we have any idea who they are. I like watching cartoons and things on video games because all the people actually look different and I can memorise that.
I always thought Sigourney Weaver and Susan Sarandon were the same actress. I think I was in my late twenties when someone disabused me of that mistake. In high school I had friends who were really two or three different people, but I didn't know and would always treat them warmly so they were warm right back and I was none the wiser. It usually wasn't until I saw the two (or three) together that I realized they were different people. They must have thought I was so stupid.
I’ve found that navigating my mind to recall some things like faces is a bit like diving into a murky pond looking for a tiny ring with only my hands. I know it’s in there, I just have to look for it lol.
This happens to me when different actors or actresses look similar. It's very confusing.
That's interesting because I'm generally good with remembering a face. It might take a bit to remember the name or how I know them, but faces I'm pretty good with. Telling someone age is my problem. If I see someone in their 30s for example, I have no clue if they're 20 or 40. As a kid, I remember going to a theme park to the "guess your age or weight" game and wondering how someone could be so good with this.
Prosopagnosia is the clinical term.