( Everyday Life with Autism )

Some people with autism are called savants (or ‘knowing person’ from french). These people are blessed with an extraordinary, outstanding, sharp talent in a certain area. It could be math, art, language, memory, …among other subjects.

1- The calender calculator, for example, is a person who can tell the day of the week of any given date. Like what day was August 15th, 1899. The person would immediately say: “It was a Tuesday.” for example.

They can tell you when you were absent from home or work, and would tell you what had happened that day with the tiniest details. The event would be several years back. They would also tell everyone they know what day their birthdays were or will be.

2- Other people have an amazing memory and are able to remember everything they have seen or read throughout their lives. They don’t forget anything. It has the disadvantage of not forgetting the sad memories. A rainman-like person is able to remember a telephone book by heart.

3- I have seen kids who read at an incredible speed and would finish reading a 300-page book in a few hours. I believe that they scan the page rather than reading word by word. I wish I had this talent. When I think how much I crave reading and never have enough time to read all I want. These people are like encyclopedias. If you test the quality of their reading you’ll be surprised that they have understood and retained what they read.

4- Stephen Wiltshire the autistic artist used to draw from his memory the landscape of a whole city after having been overflown above that city. He used to draw to scale every detail without missing a single one, not even a single window. The talents here are his visual ability to picture and memorize what he has seen. He has a photographic memory, and reproduce the picture just like a camera. Stephen is now a famous and well-known artist in London. He made a career out of his special talents.

5- Some savant can learn a new language in only one week, like Tammet who was also able to find the value of Pi (22/7) to the 22,500 decimal place in a few hours.

6- Some people are able to do mental math in a fraction of second. For example to divide two numbers they don’t make a long division using paper and pencil as a regular person would. As if they picture the long division in their mind and on top of this they do it in a fraciton of a second.

7- Some savant can memorize scripts of any length and able to give long speech or take an actor role in a play.

The examples are numerous. Those lucky autistic people can make great careers and earn their living just by using their unique talents.

Thanks to their differently wired brains they enjoy having these great talents.

This is only one bright side of being autistic.

nadia shanab

Tags: asperger's syndrome, autism, savant, speech, talent, visual aids