How to Cope with Prosopagnosia or Face Blindness

Strategies for Dealing with Facial Recognition Difficulties

Apr 19, 2009
Jennifer Copley

There Are Strategies for Coping with Prosopagnosia - mikkalai, Wikimedia Commons

Difficulty recognizing faces, or prosopagnosia, is a common problem among people with autistic spectrum disorders such as Asperger's syndrome.

Research suggests that up to two-thirds of those with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs) have difficulty recognizing faces until they have interacted with individuals on a number of occasions.

Difficulty Recognizing Acquaintances

Prosopagnosiacs do not easily commit whole faces to memory in the way that most people do. Rather, they must rely on unusual features and other aspects of a person to make an identification until they know the individual very well. In extreme cases, facial recognition can never be achieved, even for family members and close friends, but this is quite rare. Most people with ASDs can recognize the faces of those they know well and are capable of developing strategies for improving recognition of acquaintances.

Strategies for Coping with Face Blindness

Those with prosopagnosia often rely on hairstyles, clothing, context (i.e., an area of the workplace where the person is most commonly seen), and objects (such as an individual’s car or the glasses he wears) to identify acquaintances. This is a good start, but it creates difficulties when people change hairstyles and colours, adopt different styles of dress, get contact lenses, or appear in a different context. Someone who can be recognized in one place, for example, at work, may be difficult to identify during a chance encounter at the beach. More effective strategies for improving identification and reducing social anxiety include the following:

Use a Linguistic Approach – When first meeting someone, verbally describe the face in your mind to commit features such as a full lower lip, a short nose, or arched eyebrows to memory. Note particularly any unusual or interesting features that will facilitate quicker identification in the future.
Commit Body Language to Memory – Pay close attention to hand gestures and facial expressions the person makes frequently, how loudly she speaks, her body postures, and other expressive features that could be used to identify her in the future. Focus on features that are unlikely to change.
Inform Others in Advance – Tell coworkers and others you are likely to meet again about the problem on first contact so that they will not suffer hurt feelings if you don’t recognize them at a future meeting. In some situations it can be helpful to tell a funny story about a time when you didn’t recognize someone – having a laugh together can ease the tension of talking about the problem.
Develop a Buddy System – Spend time with an extroverted friend or family member and arrange to have him greet others by name until you know them well enough to recognize them on your own.
Enhance Your Recognition Skills – Choose a pleasant spot to sit and people watch, identifying characteristics of movement, facial expression, and other aspects that could be useful for identification purposes.

In the case of a child with prosopagnosia, teach these recognition skills and strategies and practice them together. It can also be helpful to tell the child's teachers about the problem and ask them to identify other students by name whenever possible, particularly early on in the school year.