Pictures
Thinking in pictures
Some minds do not think in words first. Autistic children often draw what words cannot carry — a feeling, a question, a whole world — starting from a single word. This page gathers those drawings: pictures made through words, by children who show us that connection does not always begin with language.
“I think in pictures. Words are like a second language to me.”
Grandin, a scientist and one of the most well-known autistic voices in the world, describes her mind as a library of images: when she hears a word, she does not hear it — she sees it. For her, spoken and written words must be translated into pictures before they mean anything. The drawings below come from children who work the same way: the word arrives first, and the picture carries it the rest of the way.
Words, drawn — Çizilmiş Kelimeler
Each drawing in this gallery began as a word — and came back as a picture. These works were drawn by autistic children aged 8–12 at the Yaşam Atölyesi Special Education and Rehabilitation Centre, and appear in the “Çizilmiş Kelimeler” (Drawn Words) chapter of Belmin Dumlu Savaskan’s book Kanatlarımızda Gökyüzü. Each hangs here with the title its young artist gave it.
What does a word look like to you?
If a word becomes a picture in your mind too — a colour, a shape, a place — the salon would love to hear what you see.