| Autistic savant? Yes, there are many amazing | | | | can be sensory overload, with all the shapes, colors |
| heart-warming stories that baffle even the most | | | | and sizes to choose from, but a math problem, which |
| talented people in the world. According to a savant is | | | | he can solve faster than most calculators, is |
| "a person of profound or extensive learning; learned | | | | comforting. |
| scholar". It is a remarkable thing to think that someone | | | | There is a blind autistic savant, also an American, who |
| with the debilitating symptoms that often accompany | | | | could play a Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto after |
| autism may also have the amazing mental powers of | | | | hearing it only one time and this without so much as a |
| being a savant. Interestingly studies have shown that | | | | piano lesson. Or what about the British savant that |
| about ten percent of all those with autism are savants. | | | | was able, after only one helicopter ride over London, to |
| Researchers also think that one percent of all | | | | draw an incredibly concise map of the London skyline. |
| non-autistics have some savant abilities. One theory is | | | | This was done solely from memory; he had taken no |
| that these abilities come out because of some type of | | | | notes and no photographs. |
| head trauma. In some autistic savants the feeling is the | | | | The movie Rain Man, where Dustin Hoffman played |
| trauma may be a caused by a seizure or a fall. | | | | an autistic savant was in fact based on a man, who |
| Lets use the example of a twenty six year old autistic | | | | though a savant, was not autistic. He has brain |
| savant in the United States. This young man is unable | | | | damage and though he is unable to button his shirt he |
| to drive a car. He cannot tell right from left, but he is | | | | can read two pages of a book at the same time, and |
| able to recollect pi to the 22,514th decimal place. He | | | | claims to have read over 7500 books. He has |
| says he can see the numbers in front of him. This | | | | fantastic abilities when it comes to memory and can |
| young man, who has difficulty with social skills and | | | | recollect for you the story in any of the books he has |
| cannot make eye contact, has mastered six | | | | read no matter how long ago. |
| languages as well as English. He is even working on a | | | | Don't ask an autistic savant how they do whatever it |
| language of his own. He will not take a walk on the | | | | is that they do, they have no idea. So many of them |
| beach because to him it would pose an unanswerable | | | | have difficulty with language, likely have a severely |
| mathematical problem. How many pebbles would there | | | | limited vocabulary, yet their skills in math and |
| be? There would be way too many to count and this | | | | memorizing are unbelievable. |
| would be very disturbing to him. A grocery shopping | | | | |