Intervention for Children With Synethesia: The Girl Who Heard Colors Essay

The book "The Girl Who Heard Colors" By Marie Harries tells a story of a little girl called Jillian who sees colours when she hears sounds. She suffers from synesthesia, a condition in which one sense, say another sense such as sight triggers the hearing (Harris 3). Jillian is a sweet little kid who is in perfect touch with all her senses. She loves how her maple syrup tastes, the smell of wet grass and the sight of wild geese and their honking sound among other things. However, what Jillian loves most are the colours Jillian sees whenever a certain sound occurs. For instance, when a dog barks, she sees red, when her bicycle tinkles, she sees silver and her teacher's voice was green. Jillian's condition makes her love everything including school wholeheartedly, and all her experiences had been glamourous until one day a lunch box dropped on the floor. When the teacher asked what the noise made by the lunch box was, Jillian replied, "yellow" and her classmates burst out with laughter. She found their response provocative, which registered in her brain as a massive black sound thus making her duly sad (Harris 6). Later, her parents took her to the doctor for a checkup only to discover that her hearing was perfect and nothing was wrong with her. This book is essential to children literature because it helps many children who go through a hard time since that they are different from other kids. In this case, the book intervenes in the lives of children suffering from syntheses by helping them to avoid viewing it as a disorder but instead as a unique experience.

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The author uses different illustrations to evoke feelings in the reader and enhance their understanding of synthetes based on their beliefs and surroundings (Harris 7). The figure below is a simple picture of Jillian by the dining table holding her maple syrup, a plate of cereals on the table, an apple, a glass of juice and a packet of milk. After the photo, the author uses a simple three-line explanation that Jillian loves the taste of her maple syrup on waffles.

First, Jillian facial expression can tell the reader a lot about how the maple syrup she is holding on one hand makes her feel when it is put in her waffles. Using facial expressions on the photo is very effective because most young children get it so well. They are able to relate with Jillian's feelings by just looking at her face. Jillian's eyes are closed and there is a smile on her face indicating that maple syrup and waffles give her utmost happiness. Besides, she is raising the maple syrup and a piece of waffle to distinguish them from the other meals on the table. The author uses this photo to help children understand that Jillian is a normal child and she is just like them in that she takes the regular breakfast and she loves it the way most children do although she has synthetes (Harris 8). The author also tries to illustrate that she is a happy kid just like others and she behaves the same as them even with her condition. The main idea here is to make the reader understand that synthetes is not a limiting factor for children and adults but it is a unique condition.

On music day at Jillian's school, students took turns to play the instruments, but when it was Jillian's turn, she covered her ears and shut her eyes. The other children, the teacher and the musician were so concerned about her behaviour because everyone seemed to enjoy it except her, so they all kept asking Jillian what the problem was. She responded that she heard so many colours at once. The astonished children wondered what she means by listening to colors, but Jillian explained to them that she sees different colours when she hears the music. The author uses the above image to illustrate the tones that Jillian understands every time music plays. There are so many shades including red, blue and pink to mention but a few. According to research, sounds automatically obtain both visual and auditory percept in auditory-visual synesthesia (Aviva et al. 2) For instance, a flute may sound transparent with subtle colours while a cello may seem like a red tree trunk.

Also, synesthesia could be triggered by a single speech for some individuals while for others it could be triggered by all forms of auditory stimuli (Aviva et al. 3). In this case, Jillian's synesthesia is triggered by all sorts of sensory stimuli that is why when she hears the music she listens to different shades of color, and it overwhelms her. We know that she is overwhelmed because she is holding her ears in this picture, the colours illustrated are also so many that it might be hard for her to take them all in and she is closing her eyes, meaning that the weight is too much for her to bear.

Finally, the author uses the above image to exemplify that blue is Jillian's happy colour. She is holding a blue sick- ice cream, she is wearing a blue top and the photo's background is blue as well. When Jillian explains to her classmates, her teacher and the musician that she sees colours on hearing music, the musician said synesthesia and Jillian saw every shade of blue. Shortly after she began to smile, then the musician smiled, and finally, all the other children greeted. These gestures made Jillian love the world with the same magnitude as before, with all her five senses without fear of any judgement.

Conclusion

I believe that this book deserves a literary award because it contains all aspects of children literature aimed at entertaining and educating children at the same time. The book is also capable of enhancing children's language skills as well as critical thinking skills because the images used to stimulate their imagination by providing a primarily visual experience for the readers. The book does not only help children understand words based on their feelings after interpreting what is around them, but it also introduces them to children with synesthesia. It uses a great artistic style and beautiful colours, not to mention soliciting sentences that trigger different senses of the reader. Before reading this book, I was entirely not sure that a picture book could illustrate a complicated concept like synthesis but the book indeed does it. I am sure after going through this book several times; children will have explored Jillian's senses and relate them to their own. Discovering that some children have five active senses in Jillian is very important because they will not laugh at another student in their class who has the same condition as Jillian thus making them uncomfortable. This book might be short, but it is beautifully illustrated in a way that any child can understand. It intervenes in the lives of young people suffering from synesthetes by presenting a story about a traumatised girl who was bullied for her condition. I believe that the book is highly informative and it has transformed the lives of numerous children.

Works cited

Aviva et al. Seeing Sounds And Hearing Colors: An Event-Related Potential Study Of Auditory-Visual Synesthesia. 2018, http://file:///C:/Users/maureen/AppData/Local/Temp/Temp1_1003110_all_files.zip/11172881.pdf. Accessed 6 Aug 2018.

Blair, Mary. The Girl Who Heard Colors. 2016, https://i.pinimg.com/originals/05/9b/5c/059b5cc50233d66fe784cfb84e2be083.jpg. Accessed 6 Aug 2018.

Brantley, Vanessa. The Girl Who Heard Colors. 2015, https://www.pinterest.com/vnewton/illustrated-by-me/?lp=true. Accessed 6 Aug 2018.

Harris, Marie. Girl Who Heard Colors, The. Nancy Paulsen Books.

YOUNG, JESSICA. My Blue Is Happy. 2013, https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/224844/my-blue-is-happy-by-jessica-young/9780763651251/. Accessed 6 Aug 2018.

Lynch-Brown, Carol, Carl M. Tomlinson, and Kathy Gnagey Short. "Essentials of children's literature." (2005).