Colors,feelings
Question...my son who has autism hates coloring things with many colors. For a time it bothered me. All his art was done in one or two colors. Now that he can talk more he tells me that every color has a deep feeling attached to it. But not happy, sad, the normal emotions. Pink stands for the feeling of New. The smell of a new object, such as a car, a new baby, packing material. The rush one gets when they get that new something that they have been waiting for. He tells me that it can be combined with the color green which is his color for Love, but to put it together with blue (which to him symbolizes cold) well, it is just not correct. He says too many colors just represent a loud, crowded room. They all conflict and shout at him. Does anyone have similar thoughts like my son? Can anyone go into more detail about colors, feelings and autism? My son is four and we are just really beginning to connect, and your answers can help me.
I never experienced this with colours. However, I did experience something similar with numbers. When I was your son's age, numbers evoked feelings in me- they seemed to have personalities. Math could be very enjoyable or almost painful depending on which numbers were involved in the problems. I grew out of it for the most part, but sometimes I still think of a certain number when trying to describe a situation or person. I think being exposed to the numbers mixed together over and over desensitized me, just as being exposed to certain smells desensitized some (far from all) of my hyper sensitivity. I would not force him to colour with many different colours, but as he gets older, just seeing different colours together in everyday life may help him accept it.
I am sorry I can not be of more help. I have not known any other people with this sort of issue, and only have my own experiences to go by.
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While Mr. Kim... has fallen prey to the inexplicable need for human contact, let me step in and assure you that my research will go on uninterrupted, and that social relationships will continue to baffle and repulse me.
- Dr. Sheldon Cooper (TBBT)
