It is well known that some people with autism have difficulties recognizing faces. It is generally thought that this is not because autistic individuals cannot perceive faces, but because autistic individuals have greater problems than people without autism in remembering faces. According to the Dana Foundation, up to two-thirds of people with an Autism Spectrum Disorder have difficulty recognizing the faces of people they interact with on a daily basis. The medical term for this condition is developmental prosopagnosia, often referred to as face-blindness.

In this blog I will discuss the therapies applied to develop person recognition in Simi and also the various emotions reflected through facial expression. Although Simi was emotionally attached with us, she was not calling us either as Papa/ Mummy.

1. Showing Photographs of Self/Her Papa/ Her Mother:

We used to make a Board and paste the photograph of her/ her papa & Mummy and paste Name under the photo as under:

We practice her the pattern for several days and after some days we closed the letter and only shown the Colour and from the colour she could associate the name.

2. Identification by using Mirror:

In addition to above practice, we used to stand in front of a Mirror with Simi and showed her the image in mirror by pronouncing the name. We also use Colour codes as being used above in front of the Mirror.

3. Showing Photographs of Family members in the Album.

As a therapeutic practice, we used to show her Family Photo Album each day at least for 10-15 minutes in each therapy session and help her to identify the family members.


Our dedication brought result and smile on our face as on one fine day Simi suddenly identify not only us but all other close family members in the Album. After some days She was able to identify all the persons directly/indirectly associated with her and at present She still remembers her childhood friends and asked us about their whereabouts.

But our journey was not ended there as she was yet to call us Papa/ Mummy and no social communication. In my next blog I will write more about other therapy process used by us for her other developmental areas.

(To be continued)


Author Srinibash Mishra