My daughter is 2 and 1/2 and is starting to learn her colors.. She knows most of her colors but she associates them with people. Just the other day I poured her a glass of purple juice I said "what color is it" she said "sissy". Today she had purple pants on and I asked what color she said sissy. Same thing with green and blue. Green is daddy and Blue is mommy. She has been doing this for quite a while now; Any idea why my daughter may do this? I appreciate any help you have. Thanks
Thank you all so much for your input!!! This put my mind at ease.
Synesthesia. IT's fascinating really. I don't have it, but I've always been interested in it. Nothing bad, just good and interesting. People can also do this with sounds, tastes etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia
It could be just a two year old quirk. Or it could be synesthesia, where people associate colors with numbers or music (or maybe people?). Take a look on Wikipedia or somewhere and see if that sounds like your daughter...
j
i still sort of do this, not out loud of course and not so much that the colors are people but the people all have a color. nana is yellow, uncle jim is dark blue etc.
i would wait and see if she continues with other things that way.
My son associates us to Winnie the Pooh characters and different dog breeds.
I'm a pit bull and Tigger and my husband is a boxer and Piglet. We both wanted to switch but the resident four year old wasn't having it...
I agree that synesthesia is a possibility, which seems to be a crossing or combining of different sensing areas in the brain. I have a mild form of it in which different instrumental sounds have distinctly different textures for me, sometimes very strong. I also used to associate some sounds (vowels, consonants, etc.) with both texture and colors, though that's not something I notice as much as I age. I was recently listening to a program on this in which some people actually experience a smell associated with different sounds. It's usually quite harmless (but some of those smells were apparently very unpleasant).
It is just because she is learning colors and associating to things around her. Wait until she asks if someone with dark skin is made of chocolate...lol.
I agree with the others here about the possibility of synesthesia. The first thing that came to mind was a great book I read called "A Mango Shaped Space" by Wendy Mass. It's geared toward high-school aged kids, but it's a great read and really describes synesthesia well. My younger sister had to read it and LOVED it, so she passed it on to me. What a unique little girl you have!
She is probably seeing their auras. I can't see them but I have friends that can, many children can see auras but lose that ability as they grow older.
Yup, sounds like synesthesia! Whether its a quirk or really synesthesia at 2 yrs I really don't know. My hubby sees all his letters in colors. I find it really odd, and annoying, especially when trying to name our boys. He adamantly opposed a few names not because of how they sounded or what they meant--but because the colors didn't go well. Go figure.
Write it down in her baby book and check back in a few years and see if she still does it. Even if it is just a phase how amazing it was/is!
