Do you ever get asked a question and like me feel put on the spot and react like the ‘rabbit in the headlights’?  I always thought this was something to do with the way my brain works.  But talking to others maybe it is a more common phenomenon than I thought.  Internally it is my thinking time, to others, it might look like I’m having a mind blank.

Thinking time

In my own case when I’m asked a question, usually out of context or unexpectedly, sometimes my brain just freezes.  This happens whilst I make sense of the question and process what I’m being asked, and then I need thinking time to respond appropriately.  I find I sometimes need a couple more seconds to reply than others, which I think is because I’m a visual thinker.  I don’t have an inner voice, instead I think in visuals and colours.

Processing time

The result of no spoken voice in my head is I need to translate questions into my own visual language. Then process the response, and then translate the images back into words, either to speak verbally or onto my communication aid in order to answer the question.

Visual thinking

I have a condition called synaesthesia caused by the brain damage that led to my cerebral palsy, it seems my brain is using different neural pathways to undertake everyday functions, in this case thinking.  It might also be that my hearing impairment, which wasn’t aided until I was 10, has also been a contributory factor to my visual thinking process.

Re-framing the question

If the question is from someone familiar with how I think, then they will wait for a response, or they might even reframe the question themselves to give me those extra nano-seconds of time.  This isn’t long, but I just need a few seconds longer to get into the right place in my head to retrieve the answer.

A good communication partner might also give me more context with the question, allowing me extra clues and cues to help me get into the right ‘frame of mind’ to answer.  When the person asking the questions is someone who I don’t know, or the question is totally out of context to my current situation then it can be helpful for my Personal Assistant to facilitate my processing and thinking time.

To do this they might use a filler response, such as ‘that’s a good question’ or ‘that’s very thought provoking’ or they might even reframe the question in a positive way that supports me and also the questioner.  The questioner should just feel this is part of the conversation.

Mind blank or thinking time?

So that startled look, being put on the spot might initially be a fleeting moment of anxiety before I start to assimilate the question, change the words into visuals in order to think and process the question, construct an answer before translating the response back into either a typed answer or a verbalisation.

You can read more about synaesthesia and now I think here