Compensatory strategies

Many people with prosopagnosia (another term is face blindness) use compensatory strategies that help them circumvent their difficulties. There are a few strategies to choose from. But they always have two sides to them. A total of 75 people – people with prosopagnosia, friends or acquaintances and the family of those with the condition – were surveyed through questionnaires and interviews. The following list is intended to show both the positive and negative sides of these methods and what consequences are often involved:

Reliance
The method of relying on others is used but is not that popular. It can help if the other person helps to identify people or starts with a conversation during social events. Downside is that it takes a lot of effort, it needs to be discreet and the other person could not always be there to help.

Visual association
Only a few people with prosopagnosia stated that they use the strategy to develop memorable links between a persons qualities and character using objects, locations, etc. This requires regular contact and some degree of familiarity with the other person. And some people with DP struggle a lot with visual imagery.

Facial cues to identify
This strategy has the most votes and is used the most. Memorising facial features as unusual eyebrows, blemishes or other distinctive features like skin tone can help to identify people. Usually this is done by caricaturing the physical attributes of the face. Downside is that it needs regular contact to maintain the associations and it can be exhausting because it is super effortful, those features must be studied and it can be inappropriate if somebody stars at your mouth during speech for too long.

Identify others through conversation
This method is not as often used as distinguishing facial cues. This could be asking to introduce themselves, repeating the name to remember it, introducing first and hoping they would do the same, connecting the topic of the conversation with people they could know, small talk, taking attention to read the other persons reaction and listen to the voice. This strategy could sometimes work but they have to listen more at first to buy the time they need for these cues. This methods has a lot of downsides to it. It can be mentally very exhausting and it is not said that this will reveal who the other person is. Sometimes it can be super inappropriate. People also said that if often seems like they don’t really want to talk and are unwilling to engage in the conversation.

Other cues to identify
Other cues than facial ones could be the voice, gait, manners, hairstyle, smell, jewellery, clothes, body shape or posture,  character, height, tattoos, ethnicity, gender, glasses, handwriting or bags. Problem is that they can’t trust on this method because everything can suddenly change and some information may not always be shown.

Recognition aids
This strategy describes how extra help can lead to identifying persons. This could be through memorising detailed notes on behaviour or appearance, studying photographs, using social media, writing names down during a meeting for example or using name tags. This method can be unreliable as well because people often chance their appearance. The name tag method can work but it is often inappropriate or could be difficult to read.

Avoidance
This is a strategy that is not that unusual for people with prosopagnosia. By avoiding uncomfortable situations, using humour to hide difficult or embarrassing moments, avoiding names or being the first person to arrive somewhere some situations can be prevented. But, as all the other strategies as well, this may be inappropriate or undoable. What is worse with this is that it can have serious psychological consequences or can be considered as extremely rude and can lead to hatred or mobbing in the worst case.

Strategies

The following list describes tips and strategies to learn how to deal with prosopagnosia. This list has been compiled by people with this condition and it explicitly states that not all items will fit everyone, but each individual should find his or her own opinion and help. This list is intended to be a guide. (This list was not modified by me in any way)

Social strategies

• Avoid referring to people by name or saying anything specific until you are sure you have identified them correctly.
• At gatherings where there are some people you know, treat everyone in a friendly way. Smile and say hello to people in passing and this will prevent people thinking you are ignoring them.
• When entering into conversation with people you can often work out their identity from what they say.
• Look for signs of recognition in people’s body language.
• Try to avoid meeting too many people at once.
• Ask others to use people’s names when addressing them in your company.
• When looking for someone in a group, ask someone you are sure is not the person you’re looking for, such as a person of the opposite sex.
• Ask people to introduce themselves every time they see you with their names and how you know each other.
• Be careful when visitors come to the door and don’t let people in until you are certain who they are. Other situations may also require caution.
• Try to take an interest in people and remember personal details from previous conversations. This can make up for an initial lack of recognition and ensures people don’t think you just aren’t paying attention. This is very difficult if you have memory problems as well, in which case keeping notes on people can help.
• Go to parties, meetings or other gatherings with a friend or colleague. Ask the other person to help you identify people before you talk to them.
• Get people to wear name tags if appropriate.

Observational strategies

• Look at the rings on people’s fingers. A lot of people wear their rings all the time so it can be a reliable way of identifying people in some circumstances, especially if the rings are distinctive.
• Look for other jewellery (such as necklaces and bracelets) and distinctive shoes.
• Hairstyles are one way of identifying people. This can work well when people have distinctive haircuts, but is less effective for conventional styles. Men are particularly difficult to tell apart by this method.
• Walking gaits are very individual, so some people can learn to recognise them effectively.
• With practise, people can be easily identifiable by the unique aspects of their accent, speech patterns and turns of phrase.
• Look out for distinctive mannerisms, nervous ticks, etc.
• Look at body shape and height.
• Regular acquaintances can be recognised by their car, bags, or pushchair, etc.

Memory strategies

• Invent a mnemonic for remembering someone’s distinctive features, e.g., Dave’s dimples; Pam’s perm. You could even invent ways of remembering people by really mentally exaggerating particular features in the style of a caricature.
• Make diagrams and notes of where people are sitting in meetings.
• At meetings or parties write down what clothes people are wearing.
• Keep a notebook and make notes of people’s identifiable characteristics and features.

Preparation strategies

• School teachers can create a seating plan for their classes so they know exactly where everybody is.
• You could ask if you can take pictures of people you know so you can study them. Alternatively, facebook and twitter profiles can be very useful. You could add people as friends on facebook and study their profile pictures.
• Some photography programmes and computer applications have face recognition technology which can suggest other pictures a person appears in. This can actually help to train you to notice things about a person’s face.

 
Navigation strategies

• Smartphone applications, such as Google Maps, can be invaluable for avoiding getting lost.
• Purchase a satellite navigation aid for car journeys.
• Learn how to read maps effectively for occasions when Google Maps and satellite navigation aids aren’t available.

Watching movies

• Watch TV shows and movies with a friend who can help you identify characters. This also enhances the viewing experience by making it more of a social activity.
• Watch films with small casts of characters or one distinctive central character.

The survey also addressed whether disclosure could be of help. In some cases this could be the case, but most would only disclose their condition to people with whom they are in frequent contact. Especially in the workplace, few would disclose their condition because they fear for their personal career security. One point everyone agreed on is that it should be made much more publicly known to the general population as well as to relevant medical professionals in particular, that the condition exists and what consequences it carries with it. Due to the lack of awareness or knowledge of the population, affected people are often portrayed as rude or lazy which can have retroactive negative consequences for the affected people.

All the people involved in this survey were aware of the consequences of this condition. Because there is little information and there are only a few competent and specialized professionals who are trained enough in this field, those affected often get very late, never or a false diagnosis such as autism. Some stated that it would have been much more helpful in dealing with the disorder if they had received a diagnosis earlier. Because of their situation, many were and are not able to understand what is going on with them. By raising awareness and education around said condition, many would have a sense of relief.
One other thing that would also help is to create a risk analysis that would record any effective and helpful compensatory strategies. In the end, they often use different methods or strategies depending on the situation they are in and if they have additional help from other people or technology or not.

Sources

1. Coping Strategies for Developmental Prosopagnosia, Armanda Adams, Peter Hills, Rachel Bennetts, Sarah Bate (06.2019), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333616235_Coping_strategies_for_developmental_prosopagnosia
2. Prosopagnosia: face blindness after brain injury, o.A. (2013), https://www.headway.org.uk/media/2816/prosopagnosia-face-blindness-after-brain-injury-factsheet.pdf