While copying some text and numbers from a printed page into a Word document (and getting a few of the words and numbers mixed up along the way), it made me think about dyslexia in relation to synesthesia.
I don’t have dyslexia myself (I think my brain was just refusing to work today) but I wonder if there are any synaesthetes – I’m talking about grapheme-colour synaesthetes mainly – who are also dyslexic. There must be some out there, and if so, how do they experience colours in response to letters and words? Is there a difference compared to how a non-dyslexic synaesthesia would see them?
According to Dyslexia Action, Dyslexic people usually find it difficult to analyse and work with the sounds of spoken words, and many have difficulties with short-term memory, sequencing and organisation. This means that it is more difficult for them to learn how spoken sounds map onto letters, which affects the ability to spell and the ability to decode or ‘sound out’ words.
If synaesthesia is combined with dyslexia, does it make it even harder to process language? Do the colours conflict with the letters in the words? Or alternatively, can the synaesthesia help with spelling?
These are questions I’ll never find the answers to unless I can find a dyslexic synaesthete, but I thought I’d write down my thoughts on it anyway.
September 5, 2007 at 9:53 pm |
I have experienced since my teens bursts of color with certain types of music. I also “see” every word when people are talking within ear shot or directly to me. It is like reading a script whne someone is talking. This also occurs whne I speak audibly.
I had wondered about this, but now I believe it is technically Synaesthesia since both hearing and “sight” are involved. Some times, I have difficulty “erasing” the text from a sentnence that “hangs” in the “air!”
Perhaps this “condition” facilitate learning or memory since, in this case, two senses (hearing and visual) are involved in speech communications.
I might expect that more persons have this particular variant of Synaesthesia, but are probably not aware of it.
By-the-way, I was diagnosed as dyslexic in elementary school (4th grade).
Daniel Van Gent
September 25, 2007 at 4:15 pm |
I am a dyslexic and i experience many things in colour for example people. All people are catergorised into coloured groups. These sometimes change but not often. i also experience letters and numbers in colour and letters and numbers associated with different emotions.
I see this in my head but also sometimes like out in front of me. i find in relation to spelling the colours just cause more confusion as i have trouble with visual sensitivity (ie movement of words on the page, patterns in the text) i don’t always see the colours when reading but if i am writting (thinking about words) i see them in colour.
Sarah Young
October 2, 2007 at 3:04 pm |
Hi,
I am very interested by your comments here. I am currently in the last year of a psychology degree and am wanting to do a study on synesthesia and dyslexia and whether it impairs or improves performance. Would you suggest anything for me to look at or anybody to contact? please email me on 368795@swan.ac.uk.
Thanks
Amy Rice
April 29, 2008 at 4:10 am |
Dear Researcher,
My daughter, aged 11 is dyslexic and has grapheme-colour synesthesia. The colors negatively affect her ability to read and to spell, since some of the letters have the same color. E and U are both green, for example. She also tends to group the colors and hence inserts letters into words because she thinks their colors “go together”. After working with a reading specialist and homeschooling for these past 7 years, it just dawned on me today that the synesthesia dimension of her reading is something to research. I would be most grateful for any insights you’ve gained in your research, and offer any help we can give.
Thanks!
Mary G.
July 15, 2008 at 3:07 am |
I have known about synesthesia for a while, as well as dyslexia. While I am not sure if there are any other synesthetes in my family, I do know that there are several dyslexics, on both sides. I myself am left-handed, as well as left-bodied, in that everything I do tends to be from the left side (I step first with my left foot forward, my left eye, when the right one is closed, is closer to what I see when both are open [i.e. it is the dominant one], there are some things that I really cannot do right-handed, or it is only with great difficulty).
Synesthesia for me is colors and color combinations, textures and movement in music, as well as seeing colors for each instrument played. As far as I am currently aware, my dyslexia is not necessarily with English, but I have noticed it to be very difficult to learn a foreign language (especially if they use the same letters as English does[I have taken courses in German and Hebrew, but Hebrew was a lot easier for me]) and have quite a problem with math. I can sight-read music well enough, but it is difficult for me to get the mood from a piece by seeing it only (even if I’ve played it many many times). I’ve even noticed that if the composer changes a mood too much (either with key signature changes, or minor to major in sound, temp, or switching up a repetitive pattern), I become very disoriented and plod through it like many dyslexics do with reading.
It’s a little new to me, this concept of both, so I’m not exactly sure how much of it is true or not. The reason why I am curious, however, is to see if there is any way that I can use one ability to help the other, or vice versa. OR, is this something I just have to live with? Only time will tell.
Great site, keep it up!
Camille S.
July 28, 2008 at 11:04 pm |
Hi. I have seen colours in words and sounds for as long as I can remember and thought nothing of it – just assuming everyone experinced the world that way. I only discovered this had a name a few years ago – and I started searching the web for more information (and at that time, there was very little, and most of that appeared to be research in progress by people who had heard of the phenomena, but did not appear to be synaesthetes themselves which I found very irritating!) I see colours in both heard and seen words and letters, but I think I must have learned to ‘tune out’ the colours to avoid overlaod when I was quite young. When I was studying for my A levels, my English lecturer said that he thought I was slightly dyslexic, but I learnt to cope with those areas that gave me problems. As I got older I found that I had what was commonly reffered to as ‘colour blindness’. I ignored this as I felt I could see colours perfectly well and only really had problms with some particual shades of blue/green and beige.grey tones. Until an optician recently gave me an enhanced colour vision test and told me that I did actually have some slight colour perception problems. At least this explained why I could never rember anything that was colour coded, and why I could never shoose the correct key if they were linked to locks by a colour code! It seemed to me tahtmy problems were more connected to actually remembering the right colour than seeing it in the first place! A few years ago, I became a trainer for adults in the workplace and from there did a degree in Professional Training and Development. Though research for my degree I realised that it was liekly that there would be some link between synaesthesia and dyslexia and started trying to get people interested in research connected to this – but with no luck so far. Tonight I’ve just watched ‘Can’t read, Can’t write’ on Channel 4, and have trawled the web once more. How things have changed! A free on line test has confirmed that I do show signs of dyslexia, and there are actually sites now linking dyslexia and synaesthesia! During the programme, one of the advert used streams of colour shooting towards the front of the screen, all carrying words. Unfortuantely I realised that for someone with synaesthesia, they would probably see the colours and miss the words unless the colours ‘fitted; the words – then we get into the whole phoneme / graphene discussion ……. Having read the threads above I was interested to see the ‘right handed/;eft handed’ debate crop up again – especially as I am predominantly right handed, use my left hand for certain activites, and happily swap hands for convenience for others. Will definately be saving this page to see what else comes up!
October 17, 2008 at 10:56 pm |
Hi all!
Very interested in the above – especially what you said Amy and would love to know how you got on with your project last year. I am just starting my final year project in Trinity College Dublin and also want to look at the prevelance of dyslexia with synaesthesia in a sample population of each condition. I think ‘dyslexia’ is such a broad term and difficulties vary widely from person to person. There may be something in looking at a subtype of dyslexia (if they exist) which may be related to a subtype of synaesthesia (probably colour-grapheme). Problem is trying to identify subtypes of dyslexa. Any feedback welcome and would be happy to update on findings of my project.
Cheers,
Karen
February 26, 2009 at 3:48 am |
I am 14 years old, and I have had both synesthesia and dyslexia for as long as I can remember. It was extremely hard for me learning how to read, because I had my own way of seeing the letters and words. Sometimes I would ask myself “does the teacher want me to give my opinion of the number or letter, or say it how she wants me to think of it?” For example, the number 4 is blue for me. When I think of 4 I always think of a tall person wearing a blue shirt. This person is very friendly, which is why 4 is my favorite number. Of course a teacher would want me to see it differently, as numbers just being numbers. If I ever pointed to a star and said “that looks like 7,” people would be very confused, but it works in my mind.
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