Face-Blindness

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Hi, anyone with ASD have face-blindness? My daughters just started a new school and we as parents are struggling to connect each child to the parents. Im NT and its not an easy task, but my AS husband really struggles with this! I think my daughter has similar problems with putting names to faces etc.

Was just wondering if this is something others struggle with this?

I suspect some degree of face-blindness in DS7, based on comments he has made. For instance, a girl he is good friends with wore a headband one day, and he said he didn't recognize her until she spoke, because her hair was different.

There is a fascinating autobiography of a woman with face-blindness called I Don't Know Anyone Here.

or maybe it was You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know

I don't know if I have Aspergers or not. Some days I think probably, some days I think not at all.

But I do have definite problems with recognizing faces. My main recognition of people is by voice.

Context and location are also important. I can readily identify people when I'm at their house that I would not be able to recognize if we met on the street. If I was walking down the street of some remote city and ran into anyone from my immediate family, unless they spoke to me or I had reason to believe they were also in that city, I wouldn't be able to recognize them at all.

On one occasion after he got a haircut, I walked up to my younger brother and asked if he knew where I could find my younger brother. I passed that off as a joke.

At one company a few years ago, I was often sent to the airport to pick someone up. This was often the president of the company with whom I'd worked for years at three different companies. If he didn't get a haircut or change his hair, I could normally recognize him, but I couldn't count on that all the time. I'd stand by the area where they came into the terminal off of the airplane and study each person. What I was looking for was for someone who gave a sign of recognition of me.

My son has a degree of face blindness. He recognizes people mostly by their hair it seems. Also, if you ask him if two brothers look alike, he will answer with things like "yes. they have the same backpack." One time he did not recognize a classmate outside of school because she was wearing earrings and she didn't wear earrings in school because of the dress code. Another time, he thought that a new boy in his school was a boy who had left who had bullied him. They had the same complexion and similar hair. It was months before he didn't think it was the old boy trying to trick him.

I have had that problem for as long as I could remember. It improved around puberty. It used to be much worse. My son has it worse than I did, even. Sometimes my husband has to tell me who people are, especially if they changed their hair or something.

I have wondered if my son (5, ASD) has face blindness. He has quite often not recognized people he should know well, such as his school teacher, because (in his words), their hair is different or they weren't wearing their regular coat, etc.
He also, quite often, will 'recognize' school friends in the grocery store. Oh, look there's a boy from my class!! I will tell him it's not someone from his class, and he will insist, and then comment, 'But he's wearing his same backpack.' or 'But that's the shoes that ___ always wears. I know it's him.'

It breaks my heart really, because it must really be hard to be friendly socially when it is so hard to recognize who is who, except for clothing/hairstyle, etc.

My husband, suspected Aspie, has a huge problem with faces/names. We work at the same place with only 30 other people. He still has a hard time knowing who I am talking about at times, when I mention co-workers in a conversation. And this is after 3 years working with them!

Ds seemed to struggle terribly with face blindeness when he was first diagnosed. He has improved a lot now - I think it was partly a developmental delay and partly a realisation that he needs to be more aware of other people if he is to develop the social ability he so desperately wants. He used to struggle to identify anyone at kinder and he would constantly call people by the wrong name but this year, he knows almost everyone and would possibly even recognise them out in public.

Thanks guys thats really interesting! Im starting to realise how much my daughter might have it, she also "recognises" every woman with blonde hair as her aunty when we know it cant be becuase she lives abroad Shes insistant about it and I feel bad correcting her as she is absolutely adamant. She also sees things in stereotypes, hard to describe but she will argue about a man with long hair being a woman, even though I have explained men can have long hair just as women can have short hair! She seems to classify people into male and female and its very black and white. She wont wear trousers or jumpers because thats what boys wear etc.

I think I may have face blindness (I've not been specifically tested for it)--I didn't recognize my own brother when he got a haircut, until I realized that he was wearing the same clothes as my brother and was with my mom! I generally recognize people from a distance by their hair, so it very much confuses me when people get haircuts. When I'm closer, I recognize them by smell and voice, but if they're new or they've caked themselves in makeup and products, it is still hard!

I have NO idea how you'd be able to connect the children with their parents. I mean, it's already hard enough for me to connect people with names (I give them my own names for them in my head) and I am unable to tell how people look like their families, so I'd be screwed there. I don't even see the resemblance between my brother and his parents, or myself and my parents, or siblings, or...anyone!

I think I have mild face blindness because it's difficult for me to recognize people if they aren't in the setting I'm used to them being in, like seeing a classmate or professor at the grocery store, or seeing someone from work on a public bus.
I also think it's improved from when I was younger. I just remember having a horrible time recognizing people when I was younger and it doesn't seem as bad now, but it's still a bit difficult and awkward. Like when I was little, I'd have to ask kids in my neighborhood their names often, even if I had played with them the day before. And once in second grade, one of my best friends got a haircut and put her hair up, and I thought that she was a new kid. I was staring at her and she said "Hi Meghan," and then when I heard her voice I realized it was her.

Has anyone else experienced it getting better over time? Or maybe I just don't interact with people as much anymore so it doesn't come up as often. Hmmm....

My daughter never remembers names of her class mates, theres only 11 other kids in her class! Im constantly reminding her and my husband who everyone is. She does also recognise people by smell I think, she often says "ooh this jumper smells like Nanny" if shes been to stay there and Nanny has washed it with her washing powder.

I wonder what they both make of me, I change my hair all the time lol! I sometimes have dreadlocks in which can be any colour or length, they can be straight or curly, then I take them out and dye my hair a different colour and have short normal hair for a while

My son used to cry if I changed my hair. I think it scared him because he did not recognize me. He complains if I try on sunglasses etc. He does not even like if my hair is wet from the bath.

I think he is getting used to it, as he tries to cover it up more now when he thinks a person he meets is someone he knows;, or he runs into someone he should know and doesn't.

I actually should have a talk with him about it, but I do not quite know how to introduce it. I have made some remarks about how hard it is to know who someone is when applicable. I wish someone had talked to me about it. Of course my parents had no idea, as I had originally thought it was normal, and then after that I seemed to realize it was something I ought to keep to myself. I think my son is at that stage, now.

Your post made me think I should probably make a social story for it. I doubt I will find a good book for kids.

I do have it to a certain degree. It seems to be fairly common with people with AS. I also have dyscalculia where face blindness is one of the defining traits (there is a list of traits that people can have to a varying degree).

I was a highschool teatcher for a while. I was not good I had no idea what my pupils names were and I could hardly recognize them This was before I know about AS - I am never going to try that again!

I only have faceblindness when it's people who insist on fitting in so incredibly bad (like suburbanites who are obsessed with dying their hair, styling it, and dressing in the same ways as each other). Also when I head to the suburbs do I suffer from something that I like to call "House blindness" where all these neighborhoods are so incredibly sterile and cookie cutter and devoid of any personality to where every house on the block looks the same to where I have to check the address 3 times to make sure I arrived at the right place... even years later when visiting these same people! I could never live in a suburb rife with home owners associations (I just don't get the point of having that much conformity, it seems depressing)! I would also be coming home to the wrong house every single day of my life until i moved out! (I think I'm pretty much a city girl for life).

Most people I actually recognize off of their voice anyway. Which, if they dress too cookie cutter, I pretty much verify it's them once they open their mouth.

Cookie cutter lol, we have the same sorts over here in the UK, spose we just call them Normos, well us alternative types do anyway I get the house thing though some estates that are all the same are like a maze to navigate through for anyone ASD or NT!

Helles, yes I can imagine that would not be the best job lol!

ASDMommy, a few years ago I got a sleeve tattoo and my AS DD5 didnt bat en eyelid, my husband never noticed when I got my lip pierced either. I wouldnt mind but both things can be quite painful if some one doesnt notice it and grabs your arm or hugs you!

Wow, all these years and this AS stuff is making sense and falling into place now! Things from 12 years ago make sense c