How common is savantry among Autistics?

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I'm speaking of savantry, not necessarily genius. One example of a savant would be Raymond Babbitt in the movie Rain Man. I have read that one in ten Autistics is a savant. Is this true?

In discussions about this the conclusion seems to be that more people don't have savant skills than do, but I wonder if they are just unaware or oblivious to them. I'm a mimic, do singing mimicry too like that Little Voice movie. It's a fairly obvious one.

My autism is considered the most severe type of autism (autistic disorder). My gifts include being able to learn easily from books, computers, Bible, and locksmithing. I don't know if this classifies me as a savant.

Does the OP have a particular definition of 'savant' skills?

What counts as savant?
I looked it up just now and found an account of a young girl named Nadia who drew horses perfectly, and it seemed like this was possible because she didn't see them as having a head and legs, etc, she just saw the form and the mechanics. So I thought: some autistics (*cough*) may obsess over art and draw all the time and become very good very fast, but if they begin by drawing symbolic representations like normal kids do, this makes them vastly different from a genuine savant.
Is this how you consider it to be?
A savant sees the world as a machine (like a camera or computer) would see it, without the filter of normal human thought processes and personality. Is this correct? And the other thing would be considered genius, then? (If it got to a certain point, of course. Not everyone who obsesses becomes a genius in their subject.)

By these standards, I am not a savant, and no one I went to private school with seemed to be a savant in any subject, although I'm not sure what percentage of them had autism as opposed to other disorders.

My memory seems to be better than other people and I can remember dates. I don't think I am a savant though or else I'd remember every single date. Perhaps there is a form of it.


I was visiting my old neighborhood because they were doing garage sales and I saw my old neighbors and I could remember the year they moved there and the year the previous neighbors moved before they moved there. My parents even ask me what year did we move to Montana, what year did we move into their new house, what month did they move there, etc.

I don't feel like I've got anything special but I'll often get told that certain things I do are amazing. Personally, I don't believe in "Savant" abilities. I think they're just a reflection of how we do things.

For instance;

Aspie "Superpower" Concentration ability +
Aspie "Superpower" Focus ability +
Aspie "Superpower" Special Interest Dedication ability +
Aspie "Superpower" Less Social and More Study/Special Interest time ability +
Aspie "Superpower" Long term memory ability

= Supposed Savant superpowers.

For example; I write a lot of high-speed error free computing code but it's not because I'm a good coder but because;
a. Computing is a special interest
b. I write code in my head while going for a walk
c. I see things from the point of view of variables and routines (when I need to)
d. I'm structured in my thinking
e. I "remember" entire chunks of code, subroutines etc that I've written over the years and reuse as appropriate

It doesn't make me a savant but it does make me code faster and more accurately than many of my peers.

The same goes for several other aspects of computing - eg: I carry IP ranges in my head, product codes for several microsoft products and 128-bit WEP keys. I do this because it saves me time looking things up.

I think most aspies are like this in their respective areas but only some get called Savants because many of their special interests aren't useful. (eg: I can quote the whole of several movies verbatim and I can tell you the exact order of all the doctor who episodes - but these aren't useful skills).

Hard to define, for those looking are looking for sideshow results. I think peak skills in narrow fields are very common, "Splinter Skills",

The larger problem is looking at IQ, a range of performance, seeking Normal performance.

All performers exceed the Normal human range, which is why there are painters, writers, musicans, and mechanics. While everyone can do these things, few are good enough to be considered talented.

For most it is gifts with costs in other areas, just no interest and not enough hours to be good at all things, and few records of multi gifted, Nobel Prize in Physics and first chair violin solos.

When one interest takes over, one human of energy directed in a narrow beam, there are results, but the landury, bathing, eating, sleeping, talking, get left out.

The history of exceptional skills is one person has them, they are a problem, but very often, their way becomes the future, as it works. They die broke, but billions are made over the next fifty years.

Not good for the person, not good to their time, but almost everything of value to the species.

It is not living in the future, but almost all people live fifty to a hundred years in the past. Those who live in the present, see what could be done, upset the larger group with the threat of change.

Most live in lag time, few in the now. The future and the species likes the few who focus on now.

I always like your take on things Inventor. You make sense NOW.

the odd thing with savantry and the saddest fact is that savants unlike most aspies are bound by absolute rouiI get flustering frenzied in the past but a savant would go absolue bat crazy, its the most saddest factor as they have absolute amazing skills however ironically to the autism community it is regarded by some as low functioning which the mean by the absolute routine and structure I am really 50/50 as I am visual and auditry learner but thanks to aspie being able to be a little bit flexible believe me hate my routine being stripped but I am able to bend it slightly for example I usually write at 5 30 am after walking my dogs at 5am and stop writing at 9 30 am I then do some gaming or follow my interests til 12pm and then play games til 4 / 5pm and then if my mum is working walk the dogs antil 6pm and then feed them at 7 30 pm after catching up with the news and watching spongebob. from 7 35 til 12pm I usually forum and catch up with missed program and play window based games e.g. star craft and then sleep however I sleep on a 48 hour rota sometime but usually sleep for 4 hours

that is my sad routine hehe as yu can see n job unfortunately my area is badly hit by the recession and taking no studets annoyed face but oh well

you can argue that NT social skills are savantry, i mean wow, how do they do it, how do they know it, it just 'comes' to them instinctively. you know?