Are you a savant of any type?

Post Reply New Topic

I can have an extreme focus on something that interests me a lot, like various animated series and mathematics. Does that make me a savant?

I don't have any savant abilities. I do have an ability of expressing myself through writing, which baffles a lot of NTs. I don't know if that would really count though.

I can draw really well.

I can hold simultaneous multiple world views

My general knowledge

Elephantine memory

I have a photographic memory and can understand virtually any mechanical device by looking at it, but I wouldn't call either of these things 'savant' level.

I'm not a savant. I do have unusual talents though. For example, I once tuned a guitar by humming the note the string should play and then tuning the string to match my voice. I was surprised when my dad made a big deal about it, because I thought everyone could do that. Maybe I have perfect pitch? I also have a good spatial memory, like I can remember the scenery from roads and where to turn.

If being a mild savant counts then perhaps I am in the sense that I can make wicked good grades in college, undergrad and grad school, but then in everyday life I am considered so socially inept. I mean I was making an A in a class in grad school and then in the equivalent hands on real world thing (on the job) I was told I could not do it. Also I was informed by this person that I should maybe do research (my job involved talking to people). Unbelievable.

I don't know if my novel writing skills count. From when I was about 15, I've been told that I write like a professional writer. I learned to read and write before I could speak (was non-verbal until 3 years old) and was always practising creative writing and reading books. Not to mention I was reading books aimed at ten year olds when I was six and was far above my peers in terms of creative writing and reading skills.

Savant? To tell the truth, I cannot think of even one thing I am average in.

I am a talent savant. I have seen it stated that approximately one in ten of us on the autism spectrum have some savant qualities. When the word "savant" is mentioned, many lay people automatically envision the prodigious savants (Rain Man type), of which there may only be fifty alive in the world today (I have also seen them listed as a hundred). Those are the ones who can do things so extraordinary that it seems impossible. But there are other savant types, including the "talent savant."

Here is what being a talent savant has done for me. I am able to learn (in very little time) and perform (on a professional caliber) musical instruments I become fascinated with. I feel as if I become one with the instrument and have instincts on how the instrument will behave and sound. With the dulcimer (hammered and mountain), I was able to play the instruments in my mind before I ever touched one. Then when I obtained them, I had little difficulty in playing them as I had in my mind. Within a few weeks, I was performing concerts on them.

Because of my fascination with roller coasters, I have been able to exhibit savant qualities. By the time I was in high school, I had memorized the statistics (height, length, ride time, designer, builder, layout, etc.) of every roller coaster in North America (without trying to memorize them).

Music. I´m just musically gifted now,and no more than a bunch of people I know, - but I did have a streak of savantism as a small child.
I sang in tune at 8-9 months, and at 3-3.5, I could hold a Mozart or Beethoven concert in my head, see a graphic score and sing along with the different orchestral voices. When one voice became to high or to fast for my voice, I would switch to another, - first on octaves, - and I remember the day, when I could switch on a fifth or fourth.

This is what some trained musicians can do, but at at that age (3) it is a savant skill.

(I started composing at 6, but stopped, when my (proud) father made a note of it. Stupid me!).

BS detection. Seriously, I can tell when people are lying. I do it by spotting incongruities and sussing out the most likely motivation of actions in real-time. I bet a trained profiler can do it better than I can, but I can do it without training. I can also detect ulterior motives at play, even if I can't tell what they may be. That's just more incongruity detection, I guess. And I know better than most people what the participants in a conversation will think of each other after they've parted company.

Savant is low functioning autism? I thought. anyways I play guitar, piano, clarinet, drums, and vocals, but I wouldn't consider myself savant. somewhere there is a 5 year old autistic child who plays Beethoven with his toes