According to the Dana
Foundation, up to two-thirds of people with an Autism Spectrum Disorder have difficulty
recognizing the faces of people they interact with on a daily basis.1
The medical term for this condition is developmental
prosopagnosia, often referred to as face-blindness.
For these individuals, matching a name to the face of someone close to them,
such as parents or siblings, can be difficult. Instead other characteristics such
as voice, smell, body type, or clothing may be used to identify people they
know.
For my son Hayden,
facial recognition was always difficult.
No matter how often they came over, he ran upstairs as soon as his
grandparents, uncles, or neighbors came in the door. He viewed everyone as a
stranger. Once at Cornerstone he saw a new person and asked his therapist, “Is
that my mom?” He also used to follow people at the park who had a similar
body-type to my brother. I had to watch him at all times, because even though
he wasn’t a ‘runner’ (a child who may run off), he would follow complete
strangers to their car in the parking lot if they were similar to his Uncle
Bill in size and shape.
In the hopes of
improving his ability to recognize faces, I started reviewing with him some pictures
of his close family. We worked on learning Uncle Bill’s face, and how to
recognize the real Uncle Bill. If I knew that Grandma and Grandpa were coming
over on Saturday, we started on Monday night the week before, looking at
pictures of them and labeling them. Every night I’d point to a picture and say,
“Who’s this? Grandma.” He was not yet vocal but enjoyed pointing at
all the faces repeatedly so I could tell him their names.
When Saturday came
around, he was less likely to be upset that Grandma showed up. He was familiar
with the concept of Grandma, and had seen her face all week. After months doing
this activity, he would go to her when she arrived, rather than running in the
opposite direction! Eventually he could label Uncle Bill’s picture as well, and
is still able to recognize him today, despite seeing him just a few times a
year. And I am glad to say he no longer follows strangers out into parking
lots!
To study the faces, I
made a head shot page for each family group. (For example, there were separate
pages for each of the following: relatives
that we only saw once a year, my side of the family, and my husband’s side.)
You could also have a page for neighbor kids, teachers, or medical
practitioners. It is important for the
photo to just be of the face and nothing else. As mentioned before, other
aspects of the body may be clues for recognition. For example, an individual
with Autism may look at weight, height, shoes, jacket, or other clues, rather
than focusing on the face. A face shot
will help the person focus on facial features for identification. The free
photo program Picasa2 allowed me to pull the headshots from the
photos on my computer so that all the faces were the same size on the
paper.
I then laminated each
page with contact paper and had it ready to practice before big holidays and family events such as
Thanksgiving and birthday parties. I changed
the photos once a year for anyone who changed in appearance.
Identifying family
members, pets, and therapists is actually an early program at Cornerstone for
many clients. If your child is new to a center, be sure to send in pictures
for this program. Practicing this at home is a great way to generalize the
skills learned in the center to your home. If you have questions, check in with
your child’s BCBA.
Below is an example labeled family group.
For more information, go to:
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