USA Today article about Whiz kid with HFA

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http://yourlife.usatoday.com/health/med ... 45083348/1

Favorable article about a whiz kid with HFA

That's a great news story.

I must be in a bad mood the last few days. This article just reinforces the stereotypes that autistics are either super geniuses or helpless tragedies. But I do hope the kid makes good for himself.

Nice, thanks for the link.

That,s my problem with it too. And also, do Jacob Barnett is really autistic? Hard to say, but he seem rather... social... It seem they linking his genius to autism, while it as nothing to do with it. He's not a savant either, math savants can't learn calculus, it's too abstract for such "computer-like" capacity. He's a genius, which may have give him a false diagnosis of autims.
http://giftedkids.about.com/od/gifted101/a/overexcite.htm

There is a youtube channel about him, I already knew it before the article.

http://www.youtube.com/user/mathboysmom#p/u

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YExiNNVNKZI[/youtube]

Let's be honest here- what Aspie ISN'T fascinated by the marvel that is the Schrodinger equation?! Come on. Quantum mechanics is amazing!

While I agree with wavefreak that this is yet another example of the media giving a false representation that all people with Asperger's are geniuses, I did like the way they described the kid's special interest enthusiasm. I'm the exact same way. My mind "buzzes" with the facts and trivia, and I can't contain my excitement. So, from that angle, I think the article is well-written.

Hmm, an abnormally small child as a sister.

I hate when people don't know the ... GOD, IF THAT LADY SAYS "MILK" ONE MORE TIME...

Anyways, I hate when people don't know what Asperger's is. We don't regress.

Naw, he sounds like he could be a pretty typical autie to me. I would say he's probably on the spectrum--though his giftedness is a more prominent part of his neurodiverse brain right about now, I think.

While he's so young, people will be looking at him like he's a star; but fact is, he's doing what any grad student in math could do. Just doing something unusually early doesn't make you unusually good at it in the long run; it just gives you more time to learn it. So what I hope is that they will not push him so hard that he gets exhausted--it's no good to do that; he's still a thirteen year old kid. Let him do work at his level, but don't force him to take on adult responsibilities he's not ready for.

Watched some videos of him.

Conclusion:


This kid can be incredibly annoying...

a) His intelligent quotient is 170 because of his age; all it says is that compared to the average twelve-year-old, he is incredibly intelligent. The number will go down on...ce he is the age Einstein was when he became a prominent scientist.
b) Einstein never took an IQ test, let alone an online one; therefore, the title is nothing less than deceptive.
c) He hasn't even gone through puberty yet. His mind is not completely developed, which makes his childish bashing of post-pubescent (and world-renowned) scientists sound even more imbecilic. ("And this video will be titled: 'Stephen Hawking, you're going down!' Why don't you believe in God?")
d) His parents obviously don't know what putting a kid into university before he/she even emerges from childhood does to several aspects of his/her development.

Not doubting that he's intelligent... just incredibly pretentious, but it's partially because he's been brainwashed by his coddling, Ellen-watching mother into thinking that he's the smartest person to ever walk the planet. Her YouTube is humorous ('mathboysmom').

mathboysmum.

That really cracks me up.

Nice article. The kid's clearly a prodigy, and not simply a genius. And he does seem very Aspie to me. I think it's hilarious people here get upset with stories like this.

I love kids like this. I got to work with one once, another math prodigy with AS. And he was "social" too. He LOVED to talk to anyone who'd listen about MATH and all the stuff going on in his head or what puzzle he solved the night before. If you want to call that "social." He had no friends his age, just couldn't connect with them, even though he chatted up a storm with adults who had the patience for his verbosity and narrow range of topics. That is typical Asperger's.

Wow. Watched a few vids of him and now you're an expert and can eviscerate this kid based on presumption and conjecture to make yourself feel better, huh? Insecure much?

It's a sad day when people as a website for Asperger' support think a kid behaving in typical Aspie fashion is being "pretentious." The kid's smarter than you, has more support than you and will likely accomplish more in life than you. Yeah, life sucks that way. Deal with it.

Yup. I hope the kid does great. I just hate the media circus. This kid is rare. The media smells a good story, but doesn't place any context around it. Does it further any understanding or is it just another example of social voyeurism?

This is not true.

Being a math savant isn't about computation. Sure, there are people who can effortlessly do large computations in their heads but that isn't really what mathematics is about.

Math is about beauty, interconnectedness, truth, purity, simplicity, reason. It requires a lot of creativity to do well.

More people need to know what math is because most have been only exposed to crappy rote memorization of static formulas with no real explanation or understanding.

I agree with you about mathematics, but math savants are those ones who make large computations in their heads without even having to train. This kid is a math prodigy rather that a savant, and so able to do highly abstract and complex math and explore the depth of mathematics.

[quote="jmnixon95"]Watched some videos of him.

Conclusion:


This kid can be incredibly annoying...

a) His intelligent quotient is 170 because of his age; all it says is that compared to the average twelve-year-old, he is incredibly intelligent. The number will go down on...ce he is the age Einstein was when he became a prominent scientist.
b) Einstein never took an IQ test, let alone an online one; therefore, the title is nothing less than deceptive.
c) He hasn't even gone through puberty yet. His mind is not completely developed, which makes his childish bashing of post-pubescent (and world-renowned) scientists sound even more imbecilic. ("And this video will be titled: 'Stephen Hawking, you're going down!' Why don't you believe in God?")
d) His parents obviously don't know what putting a kid into university before he/she even emerges from childhood does to several aspects of his/her development.

Not doubting that he's intelligent... just incredibly pretentious, but it's partially because he's been brainwashed by his coddling, Ellen-watching mother into thinking that he's the smartest person to ever walk the planet. Her YouTube is humorous ('mathboysmom').[/quote]
a)Don't confuse achievement and intelligence.( Intelligence help to reach achievement, but is not a guarantee.) As he become older he will simply become even more intelligent. Also, IQ tests take account of you age at the time of testing.

c)He may be smart, but he's still a kid, nothing wrong about that. Don't confuse intelligence and maturity. It's normal that sometime he's childish.

d)School can be hell for gifted kids, more so even for a prodigy. He's really better off at university, which can challenge him, contrary to middle school.

As someone who was always labeled smart but horrible at social stuff, I think hearing about only the academic success stories when it comes to the high-functioning doesn't do much good. For one, most of us are not exceptionally gifted and it sets up this false dichotomy that we will be geniuses or never achieve anything. Secondly, their is a real lack of awareness of how debilitating social problems can be. Everyone assumes if you did well in school, you'll be fine.