Do you 'see' words?

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Not unless I concentrate extremely hard.

As a small child I recognized words immediately by their shape. This later developed into recognizing the 'shape' of entire sentences, and then paragraph portions. I don't know what this 'gained' me in life, except that I can speed-read, which really hasn't helped me much, either, especially after spending $35.00 on a new hardcover book and finishing it in a day. I guess I should wait for the paperback version.

does anyone have a quasi-photographic memory? i remember being accused of cheating in school, because i would stare up into the air, and be squinting, to "read" what it said on the page. i could see captions, photos, page numbers...and just read the paragraph just like i had in the book. i'm guessing this isn't normal either.

my zoology prof. actually called me down during a test and we had this exchange. he asked what i was reading, i mumbled around and said "the book". i guess he thought i was reading someone's exam. i told him the page #, the picture, and "figure 13-2" caption...he opened the book to check, then shook his head and let me finish.

i can't imagine what it felt like for him, knowing he has a student who can do THAT, yet who forgets (yes forgets!) to come to class about 10% of the time.

I see words, too. It can get annoying...once I was introduced to someone who I thought was named "Mark". I didn't know who the hell he was until I realized his name was "Marc", at which point I knew exactly who he was.

I don't have synaesthesia, but I can see a visual image of a word if I want to. I always used to write hard words in the air with my finger to help me spell them, since I could (and still can) tell if a word is spelt correctly or incorrectly - it either 'looks right' or 'looks wrong.'

I don't draw words in the air now so much these days because it looks weird; instead, I can visualise them in my head.

I don't see words because they have no use to me without some sort of image associated with it.

Instead whenever I learn or remember my mind wonders off to a town or place I have visited and whenever I am learning my mind displays this scenery, in such a way that I feel like I am part of that scenery and actually there.

I have no control over this but as far as I can remember this has always been my mind's method of remembering or visualising, I've trained myself to visit these places and almost instantly I began recalling events that took place at that exact spot, some that had formed over months previously.
In a particular town I have recalled certain fixed view points of the library and recalled events from that memory, and then further down the road or street another trail of memory that I just would not be able to recall without this aid.
I intend to expoit this phenonomenon further.

That is so like me. Growing up, I have always had trouble with spelling words especially in school, because if I could not 'see' the word then I did not know what letters were in the word, and words with letters more than 5 were quite difficult for me because I could 'see' words that big. I can now, sorta, I have learnt to break up words and 'see' them in segments of 3 or 4 letters at a time, but the problem with that is that I often forget the previous segments and so forget the word I'm trying to 'see' let alone spell out to someone. If I can, I will try to make the segment in between the syllables or grouped letters. Example 'especially' would be 'es-pec-i-ally' in my mind, but that word would be stretching the limit as it is long for my mind to visualise.

That's another reason why I had/have trouble with math, because I cannot visualise more than 4-5 numbers at a time. And with numbers, they fade very fast, as though they are sitting in a sieve.

AA

OK...so your last line REALLY made me laugh. It sounded like something an "uber-nerd" would say on television, about some little-known chemistry or physics truth he was exploiting and applying to real life.

Everything I see or do triggers memories, to the point that I'll miss what I'm supposed to be doing because I'm thinking too much about what I used to be doing in said location or situation. Locations, people, buildings, corners of roads, bars, restaurants, neighborhoods, smells, sounds, melodies, instruments, star formations...my mental photo rolodex is really getting quite ridiculous. I've even tried burning several pictures or written paragraphs in an effort to rid myself of certain memories. It doesn't work...just gave me an extra memory about fire and stick piles.

In my line of work, I exploit this "skill" (or plague, if you prefer) on a regular basis.

This is why I watch most movies with the captions on. I can hear it fine, but it doesn't sink in the same way. It's like I have to see it to hear it.

I learned to spell by seeing the words first, which were put together by correlating the rules of the English written language. In retrospect, it's not a bad way to do it.

I can't remember verbal instructions unless I take notes. I have to be able to see it.
Also, I have to know how a word or name is spelled, similar to the Mark/Marc story above.

That's exactly how I aced my arithmetic in elementary school.

I trying to figure out what you are asking. Are you saying do I visualize the words in my head when I try to spell it? Yea I do that sometimes especially when I'm not familiar with the word.

Last edited by Brandon-J on 08 Apr 2008, 12:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I still have that habit, I watched BBC a lot like that. That way I learned English word a lot quicker than at school.

But I think that helps for more people, multi-channel learning is one of the advised learning methods in NL.

I do not think I have special abilities with reading and memorizing. I can imagine mechanisms in my head, but not pages.

sister has syneths...whatsit [wish it could have had an easier spelling], she also thinks she is on the autism spectrum herself,though hf and not diagnosed,she only found out she had syneths.. last year or year before.

I'm the same way! I write down EVERYTHING, and people will say, "Oh, it's really easy, it's just 3 turns" and I say "Yes, I'll just write them down." People look at me like I'm dumb when I make a list with only 3 items on it, but...at least I know that's what I must do in order to not make any mistakes. It's not anyone's business but my own; I don't know why people are always telling me I don't need to write things down. How do they know what I need? weirdos. heh