SAVANT SKILLS IN AUTISM

Savant Skills in Autism

[Name of the instructor] Savant Skills in Autism

Literature Review

Introduction

The first scientific description of a savant case was published in the German psychology journal Gnothi Sauton in 1783 (Treffert et. al. 2000). In the journal the case of Jedediah Buxton, who was a lightning calculator with an extraordinary memory, was presented (Scripture et. al 1891). Still, it took several number of decades before the phenomenon of savant syndrome was number of clearly described and investigated. In 1887, Dr. J. Langdon Down (cited in Treffert & Wallace, 2004) investigated the syndrome which at that time referred to explaining “idiot savants”. Idiot savant was an accepted medical description of someone suffering from savant characteristics.

Definition of savant skills

The word “savant” is derived from the French word “savoir” which means “to know” and it is not without symptom which these rare and extraordinary talented individuals sometimes go under the name “an island of genius” (Treffert, 2006). In all the first to describe the savant syndrome was Benjamin Rush who in 1789 presented the case of Thomas Fuller, nicknamed as “a lightning calculator”. Rush (1789, cited in Scripture, 1891) describes how Thomas Fuller performed extraordinary findings. When Fuller was asked how many seconds a man had lived if he was 70 years, 17 days and 12 hours old, it took him 90 seconds to provide the correct answer of 2,210,500,800 seconds. Number ofover, Fuller had even corrected for the 17 leap years. The term was used to describe a individual who had an IQ below 25 but still seemed to be a “knowledgeable individual” (cited in Treffert & Wallace, 2004). Later, Dr. Down described several savant cases, and he found which the syndrome was characterised by “verbal adhesion”, by which he meant that some savants seemed to have memory without reckoning. Dr. Down also keenly pointed . The term idiot savant was coined by Alfred Binet (1905). Today, this term is no longer in use and investigations have revealed which people with savant syndrome in most cases have an IQ between the range of 40 - 70, some having even higher than 114, so the definition of idiot savant is not only demeaning but also misleading (Treffert & Wallace, 2004).

Types of savant skills

Savant syndrome - theories and empirical findings uncover the fact that the savant's talent is linked to 'extraordinary memory'; as an instance of this, one of his patients had memorized very long pieces from the book Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire (cited in Trafford, 2004). Dr Down also found the link between the savant syndrome and autistic characteristics, although he did not recognize this connection as such. After all, autism was not a known diagnosis at that time. The people Dr. Down met who were described as savant idiots, with regards to at which time categorized under the name 'Developmental disorder' (because their behavior differed compared to ordinary mental retardation) (cited in Trafford, 2004). The characteristics in all majority of such people with regards to typical ...