Prosopagnosia
Sometime we faced a puzzling situation when we couldn’t remember someone’s name. But imagine what would happen if we forget one’s face? Someone in our network may be the one suffering a neurological disorder called Prosopagnosia, or ‘face blindness’. It is a cognitive disorder of face perception while other aspects of visual processing and intellectual functioning remain intact.
The rate is high: 2% among the general population, though it seems to be rare. The reason is that even the people having this affliction are not aware that there is something called prosopagnosia.
A child with prosopagnosia can come and say a greeting to a stranger because of the similar face and similar non-facial cues with someone he knows.
It’s also easy to get hated because he doesn’t greet his friend, while the truth is the friend’s new hairdo makes him not able to recognize. Such awkward experiences can make one develop the habit of avoiding social interaction, and in the extreme case leading to autism diagnosis while the sole root issue is prosopagnosia.
In case a father or mother has this disorder, their child may also the one who suffers. Seeing some child with similar ‘combo’ like their son on the street can make the parent punish the child for playing while he should be going to the school. In an extreme context, this child will be a liar in his parents' eyes.
People with prosopagnosia naturally develop compensation tactics to recognize their loved ones and friends by non-facial cues like hairstyle, fashion style, voice, gait, etc. If they’re aware of the issue, they can improve by practicing recognizing people faces hiding all non-facial details. In fact, they are forced by nature to develop the ability to look, watch, analyze, and listen to people with more conscious effort. Knowing someone by multiple levels of layers is always a good thing.
A child grows up and lives his life with difficulties without knowing his underlying issue maybe somehow considered a curse. If an adult helps a child to recognize early and guide him to improve the issue while developing compensation skills deliberately, it is a bless.