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LePetitPrince
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04 May 2008, 6:53 am

According to Treffert:[1]

* 10% of people on the autistic spectrum have savant skills
* Less than 1% of persons with other developmental disabilities have savant skills
* 50% of savants are autistic; the other 50% have different disabilites, mental retardation, brain injury or a brain disease
* Male savants outnumber female savants by four to six times.



I don't have savant skills. According to this, about 10% of the members here should have 1 savant skill at least.

Anyone of you has a savant skill?



Kris94
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04 May 2008, 7:00 am

i draw really amazing mandalas and im very poetic

do i count as a savant??


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Sora
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04 May 2008, 7:25 am

Visual accurate memory. Photographic - no idea, I don't get that term. What I see just stays in my mind as a visual that I can look at, from rooms to lists to books. It doesn't get out again though, which can be an issue.

But I truley don't consider that a Savant skill, more like an immense helpful but uncommon strength. More like a splinter skill of sorts I guess? Anyway, I need it because a lot of my ability to function in basic things is based on this from dressing to navigating around in school nowadays.


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0_equals_true
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04 May 2008, 7:27 am

It doesn't mean that about 10% of members on this site are savant.



Sora
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04 May 2008, 7:30 am

0_equals_true wrote:
It doesn't mean that about 10% of members on this site are savant.


Jup, true, especially because WP is, considering the majority, a rather one-sided presentation of both AS and the whole spectrum.


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2ukenkerl
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04 May 2008, 8:22 am

Sora wrote:
Visual accurate memory. Photographic - no idea, I don't get that term. What I see just stays in my mind as a visual that I can look at, from rooms to lists to books. It doesn't get out again though, which can be an issue.

But I truley don't consider that a Savant skill, more like an immense helpful but uncommon strength. More like a splinter skill of sorts I guess? Anyway, I need it because a lot of my ability to function in basic things is based on this from dressing to navigating around in school nowadays.


Is your memory such that you can stare at a complex picture for a short time, and draw an almost identicle one, right down to the last line, from memory?



dwynotRuns
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04 May 2008, 10:09 am

I do math in my head most of the time. Any level of math I understand I can easily do in my head and solve problems faster than the teacher sometimes. I get points off all the time for not showing work, which I consider to be a waste of time usually. The last time I used a piece of paper for a math problem was to find 3 to the 27th power because I would probably make a mistake and waste a lot of time if I did it in my head.

With repetition I can build a bit of a photographic memory. After a few minutes of studying for a geography test I don't need to use the map anymore because I can picture it all in my head. I was one of the only people to always get 100 on those tests.

Some phone numbers get stuck in my head forever. I have known my friend's sister's cell for the past two years because he wanted to test my memory. When I did prank calls a few years ago with a friend, I had about 15 numbers memorized. I was only 12 and he had terrible ADD.


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kip
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04 May 2008, 11:25 am

I have... odd skills. Not sure if you'd call it savant though.

I seem to have an innate ability to 'know' why an electronic isn't working. Immensly helpful when working in computer repair shops. It's almost like they speak to me or something. I can get the most idiotic description of the problem... and I know, with about 90% accuracy, what exactly is wrong.

I also am VERY good at memorising things. I can tell you every address I lived at, every phone number I, my mum, and my dad have had, how many trees were broken in half from a storm on a hiking trip we took when I was 12...

Although, the memory thing seems to be something I've trained myself to do... and it's random. I tried explaining to my dads girlfriend once why going to payless meant I knew how many wives King Henry had. She thought I was bloody well nuts.

I also have an oddly innate understanding of the universe, and often corrected the theories on the telly. Mum used to yell at me, till years later I was proven right. And yet I cannot even do basic algebra (anymore) I lost that ability at about 16... oddly it was when I had a surgery done. Couldn't do a lick of higher maths after that... but I still get it without knowing how.



craola
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04 May 2008, 11:56 am

I don't think I can even begin to describe how much I wish I had some sort of skill, savant or not.
I wish I could memorise things, I try so hard but words get lost.

When I was young and I was in plays I would memorise the whole things and I would stand on stage, lip synching the whole thing, my mum and dad used to try and get me to stop. Songs and plays I can do, but he stuff I want to I can't.

I am envious.



Zara
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04 May 2008, 12:13 pm

I don't think have any savant skills. I don't feel particularly talented in any one thing. :?
Kind of wish I did so I could make something out of it, like a career and money...


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velodog
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04 May 2008, 12:19 pm

I don't have any savant talent.



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04 May 2008, 12:22 pm

Nein, I have no talents that even vaguely resemble savant skills.


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Jeyradan
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04 May 2008, 12:25 pm

What is considered a savant skill? Are there savant-ish type skills that aren't considered savantism? Are there an unlimited number of possibilities? What are some common ones, besides mathematics?
I have a skill that is intuitive (I was never taught) and is far beyond my other skills, but I don't know if it can be considered a splinter skill, savant skill, etc. How does one know?



woodsman25
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04 May 2008, 1:18 pm

Well I know it doesnt count, but unlike pretty much anybody I run into I have some pretty detailed memories that are really early in life, like 2-3 years old. I can draw to this day over 20 years later the pattern I saw at that age on the kitchen floor, I can recall being in the crib and having stuffed animals and all, I can look around the room, recall where the sun shined on the walls, I just highly doubt most people can recall such detail at such a young age.

To test because I thought years ago these memories were fake or made up in my head I asked my parents, indeed I did have the stuffed animal I though I had in my crib, they were pretty shocked I recalled that. I know these memories are real, its just difficult or even impossible proving that they are. Then again the only person who these memories really mean something to on earth is myself. So its not 'savant' I dont think just cause I have a video or photo in my mind of when I was a toddler, but if someone walked into my old house, saw the patterns and then tested me on them 20 years later I am willing to bet I can re-draw them with incredible accuracy.


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SabbraCadabra
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04 May 2008, 1:37 pm

Maybe movies/television exaggerate it severely, but that being my only basis to go on, I'll say I am in no way a savant. I have a pretty good photographic memory, but I have to memorize things for them to stick, just like everyone else. I can't tell you the exact date every Sabbath album came out on, or recite entire books, or count matchsticks or anything like that.

I can visualize a lot of math in my head, but I'm definitely no human calculator.



FireBird
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04 May 2008, 1:44 pm

I have a savant skill and that is art. I am a wildlife artist and am pretty good at it.