Tasting colours?

[Phanelope]

does anyone else’s child claim they can taste colours? My son will tell me food tastes green or yellow, no other colours mentioned yet. And when he says food tastes a colour, it’s never the same colour as the food he’s eating.

 

[Tom]

I don't know, but I do gauge the healthiness of my meal based on the amount of different colors present. Properly separated and not touching of course.

 

[tree]

Well, I am somebody else's child.
And there are colored flavors.
(In my personal experience.)
Some food is too brown to eat.
And some is rather light green.

On the other hand, or taste bud, or whatever,
some flavors are very wide. Licorice root
(not the black candy, actual licorice plant root)
is a wide flavor.

I have a relative who tastes some words.
He doesn't care for the color/flavor of the
word "disbursement," for instance.

 

[the_tortoise]

Sounds like synesthesia.

 

[Phanelope]

Sounds like synesthesia.

I just looked that up and my son is also left handed which apparently is more common with synethesia. Also says no correlation with autism.

 

[tree]

@Phanelope

I don't know what sources you read that said there
was no correlation between ASD and synesthesia.
That's not my impression, from what I have read.

"Concrete links between the symptoms of autism and synesthesia have been discovered and clarified for the first time. New research finds similarities between the two conditions and suggests how they might be much more closely associated than previously thought."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170307100346.htm


"New findings suggest that people with autism have a higher than average chance of also having synesthesia, the condition in which the senses are mixed."
https://psychcentral.com/news/2014/02/11/synesthesia-linked-to-autism/65721.html


"...a chromosomal region linked to synaesthesia that has previously been linked to autism which is the first piece of evidence for a connection between the two conditions."
https://www.autismresearchcentre.com/project_31_synaesth2

There is further discussion within these linked articles.

 

[Phanelope]

The page I looked at said that synethesia was linked with typical neurology, which I assumed meant it would not occur in autistics. But then I find it odd that they would consider cross wiring of the senses “typical neurology”. I will look at those studies too. Thanks.

 

[the_tortoise]

The page I looked at said that synethesia was linked with typical neurology, which I assumed meant it would not occur in autistics. But then I find it odd that they would consider cross wiring of the senses “typical neurology”. I will look at those studies too. Thanks.

Maybe it was a typo, and was supposed to read "atypical neurology"?

 

[sabrdawg]

I have synesthesia! Letters and numbers have colors

 

[Phanelope]

I saw a test on one of those sites so I’m going to try to administer it. I’ve only heard him talk about green and yellow tastes in the last few weeks, but I do recall him calling food brown when he was younger. He’s 10 now so I think it’s strange I haven’t notice until now. It’s possible it was just a random incident.

 

[tducey]

I've noticed foods are different colors but I've never tasted colors and it's not a condition I'm familiar with.

 

[Phanelope]

So I tried to query my son more on this. He says yellow food is oily, green food is fresh, and brown food is burnt. Is this synesthesia or is he just associating colours with textures?