Autism In Hindsight?

HungryCaterpillar said:

But, something I've always done - and which only came to light when discussing thne possibility of getting diagnosed, whereby friends insisted it was not the norm - was that I associate colours with certain days of the week.

Likewise, I collect fragrances, and I associate them with days of the week too. So, one morning I may think "oooh, I quite like the smell of that one..." but then go on to think ".. ah, but I can't wear it because it's a Tuesday."

Does anyone else have anything similar?

If you had to assign 'colours' to each day of the week, what would it be?...

This post and its replies reminded me that a friend of mine (never assessed for autism, though he has often wondered about it) told me years ago that he experienced something very similar.  He's asked me to share the following with the forum:

"My synaesthesia extends to calendar items having certain colours, and numbers also taking on colours as well as personalities.  For the record, my days of the week are coloured to wit:  Monday (light blue), Tuesday (white, or very pale blue), Wednesday (green), Thursday (deep ultramarine blue), Friday (yellow), Saturday (red), Sunday (purple).  The colours have been fixed since childhood, although Wednesday can sometimes and without any reason, become brown instead of green.

I'm enjoying these conversations. I will be talking about my two anecdotes on my vlog and maybe bringing up others.

There is a video that exists of me as a three year old and I was already speaking quite fluently at that small age.  In one of them, one of my older siblings said "I beg your pardon" and I then repeated this back to her.  At this age, I didn't quite know what it meant and I used to echo a lot (sometimes I still do this without realising).  It wasn't until I was a couple of years old that the word 'pardon' became a cringy, embarrassing sound and meaning.

Really interesting conversations here!

My experience of the word "pardon" during childhood is the same as Ferret's, in that it was a word I too always associated with lavatory related things, and I felt slightly embarrassed when anyone used the word.

One thing I've experienced in childhood and adulthood as regards colours is that I felt that sky blue meant "intelligent". If I wanted to try and think of things logically I used to look up at the sky (when it was a clear day of course), and it made me feel as if I could think a bit clearer.

I don't know if anyone is aware of De Bono's "Six Thinking Hats", but the Blue Hat is used for "thinking about thinking" and about what processes are to be used in a meeting. When I found this out, I found it quite easy to relate to my childhood idea of blue being an "intelligent" colour.

Even now I tend to have that bias - if I download an app for my phone and there are a choice of 'themes', I inevitably choose blue. Even if I have a change sometimes, I will always go back to blue after a while, it just seems right to me.

Certain words to me bring back associations.

I too have an unpleasant association with the word Pardon.  I always think of acid reflux and the very unpleasant taste.  I don't know why but I wonder if I had acid reflux and was told to say 'pardon' at the time.

Not all sense associations are unpleasant.  After Eight mnts always taste like old furniture to me - not in an unpleasant way but they taste of antique, dark wood  I don't know why that is as eating antique furniture is not something I have ever done!.  And Lavendar reminds me of school furniture - possibly because of the lavendar polish which was perhaps used on the desks.

I think these things are deep rooted.  And possiby some of this i think could be related to being autistic.  There may be a deep down reason, similarity of a constuent in the smell of the antique furniture with an ingredient of either chocolate or mint, and obviously I could smell the laendar in the polish.

Why thank you!

Yes, I was brought up by an old-fashioned family (I am adopted and my adopted mum had four grown up kids before me). But that's another story. I say whatever I want now that I'm an adult and I love it!

I did survive and my in law family are much more accepting.

What about you?

They insisted on the p-word. I found out I could say excuse me or sorry but my family were always insistent on the p-word. 

I experience synaesthesia with words but mildly. 

Tuesday sounds yellow, Thursday is purple, Sunday is blood orange, Saturday silvery blue, Friday is weird like a swirl of dark red and gold, Wednesday is beige and Monday has no colour at all. Just a void. 

Depends if you mean pump the noun or the verb.

Pump noun could be 'air plunger (!)

Pump verb could be press, plunge, etc.

I could say here as well that my favourite word is blancmonge. 

Hi, this is really interesting to read..

i experience something similar I cannot stand the word "pump" 

when someone says it, it makes my insides go funny! My whole body cringes.

People think it hilarious and try to wind me up by saying it! I'd never ever say it myself and like you say it's cringey just  think it or type it.

I'd never thought it could be related to my autism. 

Atleast you can use "excuse me" instead.. :) im still trying to figure out another word for my god awful word! Haha

The thing that stands out from the OP's story is that the adults did not behave in a 'normal' manner. They dealt with the child in a most unsympathetic and un-empathetic manner. It is possible that they were displaying autistic traits (dichotomous thought, lack of empathy etc etc) which would be quite expected if you have autism and if you understand that autism is genetic in nature. Some people with the traits only develop problems because their family environment is (accidentally) hostile to autistic children. Autistic adults can sometimes be harsh and uncaring.

Obviously, autistic parents can be the complete opposite and I suspect that the variety of home environments is a key factor in the variability of affect (from major trauma to no visible issues) that autism has on people.

Hi - I can identify with this in several related ways, though none are quite the same thing you report.  I'm 56 (and recently diagnosed with Asperger's) so my childhood was in the 1960s & 70s.

My mother - who I now suspect was also autistic - taught me simple maths by writing numbers on picture cards which I think were from a "Happy Families" pack.  Although I've forgotten most of the number/picture associations, two still stick in my mind:  32 = birthday cake and 27 = ironing board.  The latter has always been particularly vivid for me.  Whenever I look at an ironing board, I think of the number 27 - which, when written in a certain way, even resembles a traditional ironing board to me, though it was probably pure coincidence my mother chose that number!

Among our collection of pop records was one called "Needles and Pins".  I could not bear to be in the room when this was played (I'd run out of the room and put my fingers in my ears) because I already had - and still have - a huge phobia about being pricked or pierced, mostly in a medical context, though I find even sewing quite stressful and always worry about accidentally catching myself with a needle or losing one.

Although I don't have any particular aversion to the "P" word, as a boy I found it terribly difficult to apologise or be polite in a way that (to me) was an admission of inferiority.  At primary school we never had to address the schoolmasters as "sir" so when I moved to a more traditional secondary school, where that was required, I found the word almost impossible to utter and would avoid doing so unless the omission was really obvious (as in class register) and even then I mumbled it!   Similarly, when I visited my posh aunt, it was expected of children to ask, "Please may I leave the table."  I could not bear to say this, so always remained at the table, with the adults, regardless of my boredom!

Thanks for this. Not sure what you mean by greater coefficients but thanks all the same.