Prosopagnosia is a disease that prevents the recognition of facial features, which can also be known as 'blindness to features'. This disorder, which affects the visual cognitive system, results in the inability to remember the faces of friends, family members or acquaintances.
In this way, the features of the face do not provide any kind of information for these people since there is no ability to associate faces with each person. Therefore, it is necessary to resort to other characteristics to identify friends and family such as hairstyle, voice, height, accessories, clothes or posture, for example.
Main Symptoms of Prosopagnosia
Some of the main symptoms of this disease include:
- Inability to recognize facial features;
- Difficulty in recognizing friends, family or acquaintances, especially in situations where the meeting is unexpected;
- Tendency to avoid eye contact;
- Difficulty to follow series or movies, because there is no recognition of the faces of the characters.
In children, this disease can be confused with autism because of its tendency to avoid eye contact. In addition, people with this disease tend to notice more easily and fix the characteristics of their friends, family and colleagues, such as clothing, perfume, gait or haircut for example.
Causes of Prosopagnosia
The disease that prevents recognition of facial features can have several causes, including:
- Congenital, it has genetic origin and the person deals with this difficulty from birth, never having been able to associate a face with a person;
- Acquired as it may arise later due to brain damage caused by heart attack, brain injury or stroke, for example.
When this disease has a genetic origin, children have difficulty recognizing parents and close relatives, and using this information the doctor can diagnose the problem by performing tests that evaluate the visual cognitive system.
On the other hand, when this disease is acquired, its diagnosis is usually made still in the hospital, since it arises as a result of brain damage.
How To Deal With Child With Prosopagnosia
For children with Prosopagnosia, there are some tips that may be valuable during their development, which include:
- Paste pictures of friends and family around the house, and identify all photos with their name (s);
- Help the child to associate people with specific characteristics such as color and length of hair, clothing, posture, accessories, voice, perfume, among others;
- Ask all teachers to avoid touching the color or haircut during the first month of classes, and if possible, ensure that they always carry a personal object that identifies them more easily such as glasses, watches or earrings, for example;
- Ask friends and acquaintances to identify themselves when they get close to the child in day-to-day situations, especially when parents are not present to help identify the person;
- Ensure that the child participates in after school activities such as soccer, dance, games, or other games as they help develop their ability to identify and memorize voices and other characteristics.
Some of these tips may also be helpful for adults, especially those who suffer from Prosopagnosia and are still learning how to deal with the disease. There is no cure for Prosopagnosia, and the best way to deal with the disease is through the use of techniques, tips and tricks that make it easier to recognize people.
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