Q: I have an 8-year-old student with synesthesia. I've taught gifted students for 15 years, and she is the first to come forth with this ability! I need help providing information and resources to the young girl, her parents and myself.

I've read up on the Internet, but I believe you are my best resource. Any advice would be truly appreciated.

A: Synesthesia is not a common condition, but some forms may exist in as many as one of 23 people, according to Wikipedia. (As you can tell, I also used the Internet). It is neurologically based and results when one sensory pathway of the brain automatically leads to another sensory pathway. People with synesthesia actually do see numbers as colors or hear sounds when things move, while most people don't see these colored numbers or hear the movements. Synesthesia is not considered a disorder, because it doesn't interfere with normal life. However, parents of children with synesthesia will need to become knowledgeable about it, so they can understand their children's observations and reassure them that their differences are acceptable, interesting and should not be considered problems. Most children's synesthesia disappears as they mature, so you can't assume her colorful numbers and letters will always be there.

One reader, who shared her experiences as a child, said she was sometimes treated as if she had a "screw loose." She said she thought everyone had the same experience and mentioned her colorful life to a couple of friends and relatives who had no idea what she was talking about. After that, she kept her "greens and nines to herself," and eventually paid little attention to her oddities in life. The poor child had to wait 30 years before she discovered the scientific basis of her colorful childhood and could feel the reassurance that her experiences were understood in the scientific world and, although she was different, she was not weird or imagining her experiences. Consider how children with synesthesia must feel when they describe their color-number experiences to friends.

There is always the psychological risk to children who have unusual life experiences that they will define themselves as very different from everyone else. This can feel lonely and isolating to them, so you will actually want to remind your student that there are others like her. At the same time, you can explain that many children have individual differences, and she is fortunate to have one as interesting as synesthesia, even though it may not be permanent. Guiding your student to become engaged in plenty of other interests will prevent her from thinking obsessively about how unusual she is. Helping her parents to put this difference in perspective will also make the child feel more secure. When she's a little older, she could choose to do a science project or report on the topic to share her experiences and help enlighten others.

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Dr. Sylvia B. Rimm is the director of the Family Achievement Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, a clinical professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and the author of many books on parenting. More information on raising kids is available at www.sylviarimm.com. Please send questions to: Sylvia B. Rimm on Raising Kids, P.O. Box 32, Watertown, WI 53094 or srimm@sylviarimm.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.