Do autistic children relate or determine emotions or feelings due to colors?

Question

i am reading this book called "the curious incident of the dog in the night" by mark haddon where the main character in the book,christopher,is an autistic 15 year old and on page 24 he starts talking about how seeing 4 RED cars in a row make it a good day and he goes on saying how there are black days when he is upset so i was wondering if autistic children or teens relate or determine emotions or feelings due to colors?

Answer 1

I agree with Miss Behavior.The book you are reading is fiction,for real insight into the thinking of someone with autism,read Temple's work.There is also a book,There's a Boy in Here by Sean Barron.Also someone with autism who wrote a book with the help of his Mom.He talks about how he made "rules" and if the rules were broken,he just lost it.On the first day of school,he sat at a desk near the window, where he could see the buses in the parking lot.On the first day,the buses came in and parked,say # 3 in the first spot,maybe # 8 was in the second spot,and so on.He had a good day that day.The next day,he looked out the window and the buses were parked in a different order,say # 8 was in the first spot.He had a melt down.He explained that he felt like this was something being"done" to him.It could be that when Mark Haddon did some research, he  used this kind of information, and the fact that so many with autism thrive on sameness,so it just as well could have been 4 blue cars.

That being said, I did see a show last year on PBS about autistic savants.One of the men could do math faster then a calculator.He explained how he used color to help with it.I don't know how to really explain it but he said whole numbers were happy colors,so colors could play a part in some minds of people on the spectrum.

Answer 2

might. check out psychology a textbook or something... I remember one saying things about color-related emotions. Little kids sometimes express their feelings through colors, like some preschools have a 'circle time' where everyone picks a color they feel like that day

Answer 3

Some might, but it is not a general rule. People with autism vary as greatly as the general population, and have different rules and scripts that they may follow.

The Speed of Dark is a much better book if you would like a fictional approach into the mind of a autistic person. For non fiction, I love Pretending to be Normal. Both are easily found at amazon.com.

Answer 4

I wish< I could answer that question.My autistic son is nonverbal,and has very limited way to express himself.I would love to get inside his head,and know what he is thinking,and how he is feeling.Sometimes his body language tells me,but mostly,I have no clue.At one point they said he was colorblind,but I`m not sure.Something I learned recently,is they have depth perception problems and may need prism glasses.I need to get him in to see a developmental optomitrist.A regular eye exam,would not be able to detect this,as the problem is not with the eyes,but a short circut in the brain.

Answer 5

This is entirely possible. Children with autism have serious neurological disorders and this causes difficulty with sensory input. However, autistic children are as different from each other as the rest of the population. Though they have some common behaviors, they are unique in their processing of environmental stimuli.

If you really want to read a good and interesting book that really helps you understand autism, I recommend, "Thinking in Pictures" by Temple Grandin who is herself autistic.