The Impact of Aphantasia on Learning & Communication #autism

Hi! I'm Orion Kelly and I'm Autistic. #ActuallyAutistic #orionkelly #autism #autismsigns #whatautismfeelslike #asd

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[oceanside]

I'm a 55 yr old autistic woman who doesn't really have aphantasia -- because I grew up in a home with no TV, and was either reading books all the time, or having them read to me. So I was able to develop imagination in a sort of sink or swim kind of way. But I took a learning styles test, and my primary way to take in info is aural, followed closely by kinesthetic (muscle memory) learning. No wonder I became a professional violinist. But having to read sheet music made me cry, because I learned to play "by ear" and faked that I was reading the notes on the page.

[imperfectly_megan]

I have always struggled with metaphors but didn't know why til recently. I recently was proud of myself for seeing something red and thinking "wow that's as red as a fire truck" because fire trucks are red too, right? It's so hard to imagine something else when you are thinking of one thing. (I have trouble imagining things but sometimes I can picture things on the "3" of the afantasia scale. I am skilled at imagining music though :) I can imagine sounds clear as day.)

[JuliaJames-zxxy]

Sending you a 😁 before my ADD starts shutting me down every minute or 2 trying to keep up with you & what you're sharing. Your 🧠 works better & faster than mine.

[sensis]

If someone says, "I was a fly on the wall", "the apple of my eye", "get out of town" i kind of know what they mean but in my head, that is exactly what I see...I cannot truely understand why they would say it like that. However, even though I realise I visualise things differently to my friends, it is a benefit because any time someone says something like, "thats some hot shit" the thought of warmed up poo being pleasing to them makes me laugh out loud improving my day.

[francoisstrength]

Funny enough I have a friend who tested neurotypical but he has aphantasia, meanwhile I am tested positive for autism and I have an extremely vivid visualization brain, so strong I am disproportionately vulnerable to false memory syndrome.

[kellyschroeder]

Exactly. Partly why I have a “permanent” furrowed brow ( also due to astigmatism ). Always a hazy foggy image but better when there is kinesthesis ….. 💙👊

[janettewong]

funny story

I’m multi-lingual and come from a culture where we use a lot of idioms (some of which are metaphors) but it’s also very common to tell the stories behind these idioms and metaphors to children so they understand them. We actually had a series of hundred of cartoon shorts that cover this so quite often, I didn’t have to visualize them; even if I wanted to, quite often I couldn’t because some of them use archaic words that are beyond my education level

Meanwhile, when my mother was learning English, she would ask me to explain these idioms and metaphors in a similar fashion to her so I needed to know the stories. What ended up happening was me having this kind of rapid recall between two very different cultures and being to roughly match idioms/metaphors. One that comes to mind where I actually don’t know the story behind either metaphor would be: 一蚊雞 “one dollar chicken” is slang for $1, is similar to how “a buck” is $1 in US English.

I don’t have the most severe aphantasia but it’s up there. I wonder if I didn’t have trouble with metaphorical language because it was always a priority for it to be explained in detail. Another somewhat parallel metaphor is: 心肝寶貝 “heart liver precious treasure” is the equivalent of when a parent calls their child “the apple of my eye.” The first makes sense to me because your heart and liver are extremely important and are counted amongst your treasures, so it makes sense to include your children in that category. I just don’t think too hard about the English language metaphor and see the metaphor “Apple of their eye” as a collection of words that put together in that order = “precious treasure”

Even the metaphor “time is money” isn’t actually a metaphor to me as my understanding of it to be literal billable hours or how much someone can potentially make working on commission

[all-in-eye]

Hi! People with aphantasia, the phantastics as I call them, feel like Computers to me, it's fascinating, I had the chance to exchange with a few and their classification system is extremly complex and yet so simple, folders and sub folders and sub folders but in 3D.
Have you ever heard of remote viewing? I know the phantastics would get a very different and complementary set of results.

[QueenKitty]

I have aphantasia and I did have a hard time recalling formulas. I also have a hugely hard time converting metric to imperial. I don't think I have the worst time with metaphors but I think about them differently more as like I know what it's supposed to be so I get these weird flashes or squiggles in my brain If I came across a new metaphor that I didn't learn I would probably have trouble with that.

[ohrats]

I recently watched a video describing different types of dyslexia and a lot of them mentioned how working on mental visualization can help compensate. I guess they’re not aware of aphantasia….. There’s not much I can internally visualize, least of all words 😑

[Mountain-Man-]

After becoming part of the autistic community and learning how common it is, I feel very grateful that I don't have aphantasia. If anything I have the opposite.

[Pocket_Sized_Satan]

Im very lucky as an autistic I understand metaphors but i also can write poetry better then some people in my own age group from high school so idk maybe i just understood the assignment lol

[maxleong]

I've been wondering if I have aphantasia or not, as many generally just link it to the disadvantage of being unable to paint an image or dream when their eyes closed or when they are trying to dream in their sleep. And it had tiers to aphantasia? But concepts and context, that didn't occur to me if it could be also due to aphantasia. I like to think I spent time observing a lot as an autistic person so I can "fit" to get along but not necessarily get by. I haven't had to be facing an abstract concept, but for me to navigate a what-if situation does terrify me most days. I tend to overthink the worst outcomes first, so it never gives me any ray of hope to see a possibility of a way out. Does that mean what Orion is referring to? That perceiving abstract context made hard? 🤔