Certain autistic people exhibit extraordinary mental abilities. I heard about a blind guy that could tell you what day of the week any date was. He has autism and sits around talking to himself sometimes. I told him my birth date and he told me it was a Saturday. I checked it and he was correct. I was told by other people that he never misses. It took him about a second and a half to do that. I asked him how he did it, and he said it comes to him like a memory.
Here is an article on autistic savants:Autistic Savant

Written by Stephen M. Edelson, Ph.D.
Center for the Study of Autism, Salem, Oregon
The autistic savant is one of the most fascinating cognitive phenomena in psychology. "Autistic savant" refers to individuals with autism who have extraordinary skills not exhibited by most persons. Historically, individuals with these exceptional skills were called 'idiot savants,' a French term meaning unlearned (idiot) skill (savant). In a 1978 article in Psychology Today, Dr. Bernard Rimland introduced a more appropriate term 'autistic savant,' which is the current label.

The estimated prevalence of savant abilities in autism is 10%, whereas the prevalence in the non-autistic population, including those with mental retardation, is less than 1%.

There are many forms of savant abilities. The most common forms involve mathematical calculations, memory feats, artistic abilities, and musical abilities. A mathematical ability which many autistic individuals display is calendar memory. They could be asked a question like: 'What day of the week was May 22, 1961? and they can determine the answer within seconds--Monday. Others can multiply and divide large numbers in their head and can also calculate square roots and prime numbers without much hesitation.

Examples of some memory feats include: remembering everything about presidents (birth/death, term in office, names and birth dates of family members, cabinet members, etc.), memorizing the U.S. highway system, and remembering everyone's birth date, even after meeting the person once and not seeing him/her for 20 years.

Some autistic individuals with savant abilities are incredible artists. Dr. Rimland's son, Mark, is quickly establishing himself as an excellent watercolor artist. A child named Nadia drew beautiful pictures of horses, and her drawings have been compared to those of Rembrandt. Interestingly, she lost her drawing abilities when she started to learn to speak. Another artist with autism, Richard Wawro, who was described in an issue of Reader's Digest, is legally blind and draws in crayons. His works sell for up to $10,000, even the Pope owns one of his paintings.

Music is another common savant ability. Many performers with autism have perfect pitch and also have a great memory for music. In some cases, a person can hear a classical piece once and play it back in its entirety. Tim Baley, who also has Fragile X, is a concert pianist and the piano player for Hi Hopes, a musical group of singers and performers with autism and/or mental retardation. Hi Hopes played at the Los Angeles autism conference a few years ago and have even played at the White House. (Tim's mother wrote a book about his life. If you would like to obtain a copy of her book or learn more about Tim, you can write to: Mrs. Baley, Box 8207, Anaheim, CA 92812).

The movie Rain Man exposed millions of people to autism as well as the autistic savant phenomenon. (Unfortunately, some people now have the impression that all autistic individuals have these abilities.) In the movie, Raymond displayed a great memory for ball player statistics, memorized parts of the telephone book, and counted cards in Las Vegas. One wonders why this year's national autism conference is being held in Las Vegas!

The reason why some autistic individuals have savant abilities is not known. There are many theories, but there is no evidence to support any of them. For example, Dr. Rimland speculates that these individuals have incredible concentration abilities and can focus their complete attention to a specific area of interest. Admittedly, researchers in psychology feel that we will never truly understand memory and cognition until we understand the autistic savant.


My opinion on this phenomenon can be explained by the bible. The bible shows, as Jesus Christ said, that all things are possible to him that believes.
Aparently the autistic Savant, at some time in his life, developed an unwavering belief that he could do something extraordinary and in response to that belief, God gave him the ability to do it.
How might something like that happen?
Well, perhaps they remembered what day of the week a date fell on that was just a few days ago, and being autistic they did not realize that they were not supposed to be able to do that for any date. So, they believed they could do it for any date, and God gave them the ability in response to that belief.


Matthew 17:20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Matthew 21:21 Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this [which is done] to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.

Mark 11:23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

i heard this was caused by temporary disruption of the left front part of the brain. Researchers found this by transcranial magnetic stimulation

Just some thoughts... I remember reading an article about the differences in autistic brain development and normal brain development. Autistic brains are generally larger in size and contain many more short synapses. Just rambling... no clue if these have anything to do with savant abilities.

My son is autistic, and it is rather annoying when people expect him to be able to tell them if it was raining or sunny on October 21, 1964 or whatever. Just another kind of freak show. Instead of the person, people are consumed with the novelty.

Also... about the god thing... it just doesn't make sense to me that god would dole out artistic and memory gifts solely to autistic people that suddenly believed they could do something. My son thinks he's really really good at cooking and gets immeasurable joy out of mushing around with his "recipes." Why doesn't god give him some super-human-like cooking skill? Also, I'm sure other people (not autistic) believe in their abilities in a certain arena and god does not appear to grant them gifts of such caliber.

If I'm not mistaken the russians did a lot of research into autism and particularly their code-breaking skills and telepathic skills.

I remember reading about one guy who would throw a tennis ball against the wall and when it came back it would be inside out and they could never figure out how he did it.
even on the video in slow-mo you couldnt see when it happened, the ball would compress and as it decompressed it would be inside out.

wierd.

antiaging, You're suggesting that children may have beliefs about having extraordinary abilities before they exhibit the behaviour of autistic savants and before they have even learnt the concepts of 'belief' or of what is 'extraordinary' in their world?

Maybe God does do this but it seems they're exacting a price for having extraordinary ability, not that you have to be a savant to be extraordinary.

Hotoke, are you talking about temporal lobe epilepsy?

I've always been quite fascinated by savant abilities. My very general views on the matter are that the 'normal' abilities that we take for granted and that make us 'normal' as compared to people with autism provide extra brain 'power' if you like into the areas that savants excel in ie. if a brain does not have to check and preoccupy itself with social type activities (and other activities) those areas are used for super memory mainly, it seems.

Pagan_2k, that is weird. Got any references?
I don't doubt you reading it but sometimes I doubt some of the Russian claims. I have read some pretty cooky stories.

Cheers

Guardian

@Guardian : I dont have ref's, its jsut something I remembered watching a video about once and I've also read one or two books on the same subject.
Russians were into this type of thing and the occult, more so than the germans.
But yeah, you should take what the russians say with a pinch of salt - probably because water freezes and vodka doesnt. I wonder what comes out of the taps there?

I saw a program about savants the other day. The following link is part of what the show
was about. Truth is stranger than fiction!
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/22/magazine...artner=USERLAND

Sorry about that link, try the link from this google seach under "Savant for a Day"

I remember this show on this discovery channel about a week ago about a guy who was a math savant, but he wasn't autistic.



I also saw that show and thought it would be kind of cool to be turned into a savant, for a while.

My daughter is 18 and is considered on the severe end of the autistic spectrum. I say this sincerely! I have lived with this so long I have to vent my thoughts...
A little about her. She has never spoken a word in her life, she will communicate by signs every now and then with particular people only. She completely isolates herself with everyone..she carrys a t-shirt over her left shoulder and has carried the same shirt for four years now, and I hate the thing, don't know the significance of this specific shirt...I am (allowed) to wash it only at night when she is asleep.... she is a master (I say this strongly) at guessing matches..knows it's a match before she turns the card over, she can ring hoops either handed, strong handed, sitting down, from any angle, or length from a basketball goal set at normal height (these are well documented at the university) Local news wanted this piece for some footage, but I refused.....she is a mere 90 pounds and has strength of two men. She shreds paper, and listens to one station only, hates channel changing, hates 'beep' noises, throw rugs can't have wrinkles, not a piece of lint on the floor before she goes to sleep, it drives her nuts, and me too!!! etc, I can go on forever with this stuff... some extraordinary skills some are not....what can I say: it's autism, a disorder. Some skills are above average for some others are not..

Now, there are no experts on this!! US parents/ caretakers are the experts! ... you learn quickly to read minds, I can assure you, or atleast in MY case you have too!! Figuring these kids out, and their "kwirks" (what I call it) is a learned process, this can't be taught!! People can study it as long as they like even master this bizaare disorder and all it's questions, I respect those that do don't take me wrong here!! ... the baffling things for me is:
{ how is it one person can memorize a book first time they read it from front to back, and someone else who hasn't never spoken a word in their entire life can suffer from same disorder, how is it possible? That's what makes it unique, imo. }
*These kids are NOT freak shows*... They are special like any other child born in this world...They are important people, every one of them (savant or not). Let's not always assume all autistics can move mountains with their thoughts, let's assume they all need our love instead.

I believe the bible. But, I find it difficult to believe that Mandi (autistic daughter) just decided to know (matches) what card was turned over just out of faith, or out of the mental capacity to think and it will happen kind of thing. She has done this even at a little over two years of age. It's more complicated than this I believe. *Maybe* some were given (by God) talents, that would somehow make up for something else, like their autism in general... Im just saying....I have my own thoughts on this issue...but, nevertheless, it's interesting.

my thoughts are: what would an autistic savant make of our view of the world, perhaps if they saw the world the way we do it would be a chaotic mess, unfathomable. perhaps there view of the world is so organized that if we were to look at the world through their minds we would stumble on the most beuatifully elegant and easy to use library...

You are right these kids are not freak shows. They are humans and deserve respect as
such. The study of Savants holds clues to the workings of the human brain. This study
may lead to successful treatment for autism in the future. There is a book written by
Temple Grandin who is herself autistic. Perhaps it can help you to further understand
your daughter. This forum is about unexplained mysteries, maybe the more we get
together on these mysteries the more answers will begin to present themselves.
Here's a link to Temple Grandin: http://www.templegrandin.com/templehome.html