Savant Skills

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Who here has a savant ability, and what is it?

I don't know what you'd call it, but I describe it as the visual equivalent of perfect pitch. For example, if I see a specific shade of color, I can identify that exact same shade if I see it somewhere else.

Mine is the ability to visualize the interaction of mechanical kinematics, abstract equations and the flow of electricity and fluids. I see these thing like cosmic ribbons. in my head. Think silk acrobatics. I also integrate a lot of these visualizations into my stims as well.

I don't know if you'd call it a savant skill, because it's probably a byproduct of my special interests, but I can intuit storylines. It's basically why Terry Pratchett is my favourite author, because when I read his books I haven't figured out the "plot twist" three chapters earlier.

I don't know if this is a "savant" skill, but I can read music really, really fast. I am the best sight-reader I know and can play 80% or more of a difficult piece correctly the first time I look at it.

I have students who get a little stressed out when they see me "in action." I have to tell them they *must not* compare their own ability to mine because I am a freak in this area.

I have an awesome sense of direction. I am called a "living GPS". I am never lost. Well... unless I spent too much time in a closed, loud area such as cinema and go out. It takes a while before I synchronize with the outside world again. But it is a sensory issue. As long as my senses are calm I can draw an area map in my mind and follow it to go wherever I want. If I am in an area I don't know I just "draw"the visual-spacial cues I see around and fill all blanks with world directions and range between points. I have a sixth sense - I can intuitively tell where is north. I can sense it as if i had a real compass in my body.

I am what is called a talent savant. For me, I am able to play musical instruments that I become fascinated with, without lessons and in little time. And by the time I was in high school, I had memorized (without trying) the statistics of every roller coaster in North America.

Would synesthesia be considered a savant skill? I have it. One example of my overlap is that I experience both a specific taste and color when I hear a particular note on the piano.

All GOOD flavors I hope?

I don't know if this counts but I was able to read and write by the time I was around two years old. I was several years ahead of my peers in school, often reading books for 10-11 year olds when I was about 7.

Have also been told that I write like a professional novelist and that my creative writing skills are very good since I was about 15 years old.

This may not count, but I have been told many times that I have a great attention to detail. It's often easy for me to notice things in "What's wrong with this picture?" type puzzles.

I have very fast arithmetic skills, very frequently the answers come up in my head before I attempt to make any conscious effort to calculate. I don't even go "33 times by 83 is...", a number just appears in my head which turns out to be correct.

I also have a talent at memorising numbers with ease; I memorised pi to 1,000 decimal places a while back. I also can remember the numbers of the trains that I travel on. 319219 was my favourite recent one: Luton Airport to Sutton; I got on at St Pancras International (I can travel on that train during the very quiet times with a friend or support worker when we can get a whole carriage to ourselves).

I also have a possibly savant skill at train maps. I am learning all the train maps of South East England and aim to learn the whole of England. I can memorise a train map in 10-15 minutes and still be able to visualise, and zoom into, the whole map weeks later without even refreshing my knowledge. I was known at school as the "train girl" because I would go and recite things like London Waterloo to Weymouth or London Paddington to Penzance off by heart to random people.

Overall I have a very strong memory for numbers and logic systems (train maps to me are logical systems).

Last edited by SteelMaiden on 25 Sep 2014, 12:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Figuring out tech stuff really quick and learning songs on bass by ear after 1 or 2 listens probably.

I don't like to gloat though, it feels wrong to me.

Just a super-spongy memory for things that interest me. Also I can sense the "essence" of some people at first sight: good/bad, deep/shallow, duplicitous/honest, courageous/cowardly. I'm never wrong.

I seem to have one. It is very fast pattern recognition with long strings of letters and numbers...no training and tested through vocational rehab. Very surprisingly scored really really high.
Poor with number calculation all around.

Mostly, yes! The piano note tastes like my granny's iced tea. Yum. Certain shades of purple however taste like bile. That I can do without.