What color is your autism?
Orange “has been found to be beneficial for children with autism,” writes Elizabeth Harper in Blogcritics, in an article entitled You Are The Colors You Choose. More specifically:
Often worn by eastern aesthetics, orange is associated with vibrant health. It has the same vibrational frequency as DNA, the template of all human cells. This color is known to heal shock.
Healing “shock”—is that the “beneficial to children with autism” association?
Charlie does like to eat clementine oranges but if there’s one color he likes it is green or blue. The color of the ocean.
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POSTED IN: Food and Diet, Psychology, Sensory, Treatment
10 opinions for What color is your autism?
Danni
Dec 23, 2006 at 1:05 pm
I don’t like orange, most shades of brown and several shades of green. I can’t explain why, but my dislike borders on hatred. Sammie’s favourite colours used to be orange and green, but she’s gone all girly and likes pinks and purples now. My favourite colour is purple, but I’m very particular about shades.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Dec 23, 2006 at 2:12 pm
Now that I think about it, Charlie does rather like to wear orange shirts—but only two in particular!
Daisy
Dec 23, 2006 at 4:02 pm
Ummm…and if your autistic child is blind?
Danni
Dec 23, 2006 at 5:10 pm
Sammie had a really bright orange dress last year that she absolutely adored. In fact, one of my favourite photos of her has her wearing it :)
http://dannimatzk.co.uk/ball.jpg
mcewen
Dec 23, 2006 at 6:32 pm
Hmm. Learn something new everyday! didn’t know about orange. My older boy favoured orange as soon as he was able - orange clothes particularly. Suited me fine as it was much easier to spot who was moving in which direction when you were out in public. If there was ever a choice or items he would always choose orange. In fact it was when he went off ‘orange’ that his difficulty in making ‘choices’ manifested itself. Thanks for that, good food for thought. Cheers
Lisa/Jedi
Dec 23, 2006 at 11:40 pm
Brendan’s fave colours are blue & green. He has negative OCD associations with red & purple these days, so he avoids these colours like the plague. I would really like to know in what way orange has been found to be beneficial for autistic children…? Are we talking chakras, sympathetic vibrations, or what? I think mcewen has the right idea when it comes to spotting brightly-attired kids in a crowd, but as to any other sort of benefit… I tend to be suspicious of blanket statements about anything.
Julia
Dec 24, 2006 at 12:29 am
Sam loved orange as a baby.
He likes blue just fine now, as well. Red, too.
His younger brother doesn’t like wearing orange hand-me-downs very much.
natalia
Dec 24, 2006 at 11:46 am
Danni, Sammie is lovely!
I think, just offhand, that the colors thing is much more personalized than people often think. (like a color could have one psychological effect on one person and another on another person)… And there ought to be cultural aspects, too, but I have no data to back up either of these ideas.
Also, what colors a person likes to wear may or may not be the same as what colors they like in general… I think especially for guys. My husband will paint with all kinds of wild colors that he would never be caught dead wearing.
PS: I like orange, and I sometimes wear orange. I hated it during high school and grad school because it was one of my school colors at both places and I hated school spirit. Later I re-discovered orange as a color in its own right.
When I was a child, our house and furnitures were painted various colors, like purple, lime green, fuschia, mustard, and -yes- orange. I am pretty sure I liked that as a child… (being one of those autistics who thrive on color-busy environments, rather than one who gets overload from it) how could I not?!
Julia
Dec 24, 2006 at 12:05 pm
Oh, we joke that Sam should be a Longhorn and not an Aggie. :) (UT colors are burnt orange and white, Texas A&M colors are maroon & white. I found out that I actually look OK in burnt orange, I never would have thought it with my coloring!)
C. likes green and yellow, and likes to wear pink, as well. (She also likes frogs; her favorite shirt is a green one with many frogs on it.) T. is happiest wearing blue.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Dec 24, 2006 at 12:51 pm
Blue and orange—Mets colors!…… These comments are making me think of ways to redesign Autismland.com…..
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