Autism and synesthesia?

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I had to look this one up.
I don't have it, but my son has GOT to. I've always said that he just sees something in numbers and letters that most of us don't.
And something about curves... the curve of a walking cane; a candy cane; a question mark; a clothes hanger.... I wish I could see them through his eyes, because he lights right up. It's incredible.

I feel sounds. When I hear (or if I'm having an especially difficult day, when I read) a word, I feel it, kind of like when you touch something. Words can feel velvety, cool to the touch, smooth, spiky, like gravel or sand.... certain words cause extremely unpleasant physical sensations, for example, like having spiders run over my body. This is a serious problem sometimes because it is impossible to control what other people say and if I happen to read a word, even in passing, when I'm having a overly sensitive day, I get very agitated. Does anyone know of any ways to deal with this kind of issue?

I have it mildly. It's somewhat context-dependent and comes out more in different situations; for example if I'm emotionally involved in the music, text, whatever. I get grapheme-color and sometimes sound-color. I get it with numbers if I'm looking at patterns, for example all the 4s will seem to be of a different "shade" than the 6s.

I have several types of synesthesia: Letters and numbers have color, gender, and personality. Words have shape and weight. Sounds have color, shape, movement, and location. Units of time have color and shape. Some concepts have color. Smells have color. Personalities have color. Objects have gender and personality.

It does seem like there's a connection with autism spectrum disorders. I'd love to see an official study on that.

It definitely seems like synesthesia is common on the spectrum. I noticed it early in childhood, particularly with associating colors with the letters of the alphabet, individual words, numbers, and pitches (I have extremely acute absolute pitch.) Now as an adult and professional musician, I find that many types of sonorities, harmonic language, and textures in music bring to mind not only colors but also complex physical textures.

Are any of you familiar with the 20th century French composer Olivier Messiaen? He had extremely complex and acute synesthetic sensitivity, and his music is incredibly colorful. My head nearly exploded the first time I heard some of his music!

Again sound to color synesthesia. I have to agree it is a little more complex and layered and textured than the Chopin you tube video. Again I am a musician, a bit more experimental and I have done live sound engineering part time in the past.

For me it's time-space synesthesia. The year is an inclined ring with the New Year at the top and my position on it depends on the current time of year. I see this one the most but also have a visualization for a day and week.

The day is a chevron with noon at the apex but instead of being on it I'm looking at it with the current time standing out to me in a way I can't describe.

The week is 7 blocks in a line. Sat and Sun are raised higher than the rest of the week. Mon and Fri are even height and the lowest of all, Tue and Thur are even and slightly higher and wed is slightly higher than those and about 3/4 the height of the weekend. Again, this one I look at and am not on it.

The last is the hardest one for me to describe. Viewed at a distance it would be like a helix, but each decade is a straight line vs a portion of the curve. I can't look at more than one decade at a time with any visible definition. This is the only one where my zoom level so to speak changes. I can zoom in to a single decade or back out to a great distance. At a distance it looks like a white single helix against a black background. The odd thing is that from this distant vantage point I see other such helices in the distance and cannot explain their presence.

I don't think I have synesthesia but certain numbers have certain colours in my head. For example, 1 is white, 3 is light blue, 4 is yellow, 8 is orange and 9 is red. (Other numbers don't conjure up a colour and combinations of single digit numbers don't do anything either.) And when I see the colours they aren't actually visible in front of me at all, just visuallized in my head. I'm not sure if there is a name for what I experience, it's not synesthesia but I don't think it's what would be considered 'normal' either. Maybe I am remembering what colour the numbers were from reading them in a book or something as a kid, I'm not sure.

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THINGS I LIKE
Parasaurolophus, Plesiosaurs, Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs, Music, Tuna, Chocolate milk, Oreos, Blue things

Parasaurolophuscolobus. Parasaurcolobus. Colobusaurolophus.
....And Nunchucks are my friends.

That sounds like synesthesia to me.

I don't think the "you have to visualize it in front of you" has held up over time.

^^ Agreed.

With me it's not as strong a sense as if I'm deliberately remembering a colour, it's more subtle than that and comes with extra goodies attached to the colour sensation (texture, shape, depth, mass).
It's all still internal and not in front of me in any sense, but unlike a straightforward memory of a colour (which sort-of floods my 'internal screen'), colours invoked by sounds or harmonies always move or pulse slowly in an organic, dynamic flowing sort of thing even if the sound itself is constant - like a chord sounding, say, or even one sustained note.

I get nothing whatever for numbers or days, with some colours for months.
But music quite literally becomes alive.