Ever Met an Autistic Savant?

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I knew one, or at least I'm pretty sure. Almost 35 years ago when I was about 10 years old, there was a man in our neighborhood who rode a red bicycle and would often stop to talk to the kids. I'd say he was in his mid thirties, thin and very tall and his name was Ronnie. He loved to play simple child's board games or checkers and would often carry them in the basket of his bicycle. He also loved to sing, and had this wonderful baritone voice and his favorites were torch songs from the 40s and 50s. He would stop his bike and if we asked, start singing acapella right there on the side of the road without a hint of embarrassment.

My parents had told me he was ret*d, because of course autism was unknown in those days, and that we should be nice and not make fun of him. Looking back, he was relatively low-functioning and probably had the mentality of an 8 year old. He was very naive and easy to tease and I admit that sometimes we did tease him and play jokes on him.

One day a couple friends and myself were invited into his home where he lived with his mother. He had his own piano and sat down to sing for us and played and sang wonderfully while reading sheet music. His mother then showed us music he had written himself, page after page of tablature with notes, time signatures, etc., hand-written in pencil, some songs with lyrics and others piano instrumental pieces. He played a few of these for us and I recall being amazed at how this childish man could be capable of making such beautiful, complex music.

My diagnosis of AS last year got me thinking about this man and the inexplicable compensation nature sometimes gives to those with profound disabilities. I have no such remarkable talents myself but I think nature has given me certain abilities that the average person doesn’t possess and is sometimes envious of.

Anyone who knows much about autism knows that true savants are quite rare, despite the impression created in the public by "Rainman" that low-functioning autistics have magical powers.

I wonder if anyone else has met a true savant.

Last edited by snuuz on 02 Jan 2009, 9:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I have only met one and was able to be with him for a few days about thirty years ago. There is no way I know whether his gift was due to autism or other causes. He was an interesting character much like Kim Peeks.

i'm meetin a guy next week - another artist - who is having an opening. numbers savant. you know...looks at a flock of birds and tells you the number in one sec. good on him. his paintings are really cool, too.

OMG, I'd love to be there for that one. You have got to make some video if at all possible and if it's okay with him. These people are a scarce as hens teeth and I think they hold the keys to what a lot of people are looking for.

yeah, it is going to be pretty cool. he is having his first solo exhibition at a little gallery. there is a bunch of us odd and eccentric artists up my way who have banded together to form a loose group. it is very safe for each of us - most of us are professional practitioners and secretly have ASD's or another has bipolor and another is dyslexic and jsut amazing wtih what he makes. It will be interesting to see how each of us goes with this "group" thing----it's very new territory for each of us because we are all very solitary in our art practices. anyway, i do not know him yet...he is a friend of another artist friend.

will let you know how it goes.
i don;t go out to openings or such things usually. but i won;t miss this one. it is a very small affair. and i wanto support another autistic artist.

Do not like asking other artists about their work, it seems intrusive.
Millie were you initially anxious displaying your work to strangers?

Last edited by Jenk on 02 Jan 2009, 10:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.

I have never met one.

Thankyou so much. I needed to hear that. The post I mean.

Met one? I am one! Well, not really.
Great post snuuz.

very much so. still am. but i do it. i find people coming into my studio unless they are good people (not tossers and asses) also very difficult. but i have learned to do it. i'm 46. in my youth it was so veryhard to even get out into the world.

No autistic savants, unfortunately, but I have met some very talented people.

My brother is a math savant (though he is PDD-NOS/AS, not traditional autistic). My mother and I are hyperlexics but I am not sure that counts as savantism.

I am living in Asheville and I hear we have a calendar savant in town, but I haven't met him. I would absolutely love to, however.

I knew a kid with mental retardation (not autism though) who when she met you, would ask your name and your birthday. No matter how long afterwards it was until she saw you again, she would recognize you instantly and repeat your name and birthday. I'm not sure if that counts as a savant skill, but it was certainly a splinter skill for her.

I've known a lot of autistic people (I worked for a while at a school for autistic kids), but I don't think I knew anyone else with savant abilities. Of course, with nonverbal and minimally verbal kids, you wouldn't really know whether they had a savant ability- they could have one that you just didn't have access to because you couldn't communicate efficiently with them. Like with this one kid who loved to play with air currents, especially using bubbles, I used to say to my supervisor, "For all we know, he is calculating air speeds and bubble trajectories in his head right now."

pretty close aurore!!

Closest I've come is my brother. Annoying little sod, but he can do puzzles of any number of pieces... I heard he was on the lookout for 8000 pieces last time we discussed it. I wonder if they make them. He's been doing puzzles since before he could walk. I mean, they were wooden kid puzzles but as an infant he would crawl over and dump and assemble them... our older brothers would have to tell babysitters and such not to stop him from getting them since he wasn't going to chew on them. And he could make complex design with legos. Eh, well, savant or not, we thought it was cool.

Aurore,

I don't think hyperlexia, understood as what the word implies, counts as savantism, though it probably should. Many seem to think it pretentious, even if they don't know the meaning of the word. (The lol is ridicule at their lack of ability, not at anything else)

I have known a few SMART people. THAT, for ME, is saying a LOT! Looking back, I think MOST of them had definite AS tendencies. I don't think I ever met ANYONE I would consider a savant.

BTW So that people know. I mean, by saying "THAT, for ME, is saying a LOT", is simply that I am just not one to use such descriptions freely.

Last edited by 2ukenkerl on 03 Jan 2009, 2:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.