Savant skills?

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I've been reading up about savant skills and super memory and such, and how it's more common in people with autism.
But I was wondering, are there savant skills that aren't as "common" like music or math or calenders? Or is extreme skill/ability in anything outside of those subjects not considered savantism?

Because for example people often talk about synesthesia and say "these people might see letters as colors or with personalities, or might taste music" but rarely delve into all the varieties and forms of synesthesia, and so I'm wondering if there are more varieties to savantism that people don't often cover.

Another question would be how do savant skills of people with autism differ from savant skills of non-autistics, if at all?

In the Autist, i think synesthesia can be the means in which 'savant skills' come to fruition, are powered by, or aided. In my opinion, NOT only are there different types of synesthesia; there may be different ways in which synesthesia is accessed or operated. I think synesthesia is analogous to the internet. Some people have dial up, some have broad band, some have DSL or wireless, and others might have satellite. I suspect the potential is there for all of us BUT many are simply NOT connected.

TheSunAlsoRises

I seem to do better at math than most other people. A skill I picked up (or did I always have it?) is the ability to look at a math problem and "see" the answer without having to figure it out longhand. Other students would be taught HOW numbers worked, but I could see WHY. You would think this would help me in school, but it was exactly the opposite for me. My teachers wanted me to show my work, which is something I couldn't do. How do you show neurons connecting in a bizarre way so you can "see" the answer? Since I couldn't "show my work," I usually got mediocre grades in my math classes. I never could figure out why my teacher wanted this, since I always came up with the correct answer.

If I took a test that required only an answer, though, I was usually quite good at it. When I was in high school, an organization called Mathematics Association of America tested every high school student on their math skills. I got the highest score in my school, and one of the highest in my city, every year. Of course, it baffled my teachers and the administrators of MAA when they looked at my scratch paper (one piece was handed out to every test taker and had to accompany the test answer form all the way through the process) and found it conspicuously blank. - LJS

my child has autism and does exhibit amazing skills such as a photographic memory, the ability to read & do math at a very young age plus he is very interested in music, keep in mind he is quite young so who knows what his full potential will be but whatever his interests are, i will do everything i can to fuel his dreams

ok so let me try my best to remember because I have somewhat forgotten...

A = red
B = well.. duh blue
C = blue also
D = either yellow or brown
E = green all the way
F = tan
G = black or grey
H = white
I = also white
J = tan
K = red
L = yellow
M = red
N = orange
O = black
P = purple ha ha ha
Q = you know... I dont think I ever had a color for purple... interesting! I didn't realize that before (edit after the fact... the "purple" word in that statement was completely accidental so I have to say that Q is a purple letter)
R = dark brown (color of mud)
S = beige
T = orange
U = colorless, maybe greyish brown
V = orangish red
W = off-white
X = glowing silver
Y = yellow
Z = gold

1 = white
2 = red
3 = green
4 = blue
5 = red again, or sometimes gold because of 12 days of cristmas
6 = blue
7 = orange
8 = purple (hmmm I wonder why? 2x4 anyone)
9 = green
10 = zebra stripped

its been a long time, so a lot of this is guessing and nostalgia but very much my alphabet and numbers were linked to colors... I remember wondering if others saw their numbers with color values and what the impact of that would be if others didn't ... how would they ever understand math?

(btw, I am a visual/pattern learner... hence why this is what it is)

mathematical intuition... it's like estimating, but without rounding...

I can estimate probability as if it was the easiest thing to guess in the world... binomial distribution is my favorite and the closest to how I seem to guess numbers...

other things I can get a feel for, is I can stare at a group of numbers and get an approximate average and usually average absolute deviation (I cant guess standard deviation because while math people think its special and I can calculate with simple calculator its really not as good as average absolute deviation in showing distribution in my opinion)... its almost like I can see the charts in my head... I can also tell you if a dataset is a normal distribution or if it is skewed... although I have a tough time remembering which is left and which is right... I think it's the backwards way to how my mind thinks it should be

algebra... I love... and understand... the world is simply formulas and the way to undersand the world is simply to solve for x ♥♥♥

btw... I dropped out of high school twice... the highest level of math I have is first semester of Algebra 1 and I had to beg and protest even to get that... I nagged my counselors telling them that the only way I would do well in math is if I had to learn and obsess about it but did they listen? no... so I ditched instead and did drugs :p

Grapheme color synesthesia...........

TheSunAlsoRises

Last edited by TheSunAlsoRises on 19 Jan 2012, 11:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I can look at a picture and mentally hear music. different types of art produces different music.
I heard Kandinsky did the same thing.

I have different emotional experiences with each different number if I focus on the number. These emotions are involuntary. I don't normally feel emotion day to day, only really with numbers or friends.

I have very rapid mental arithmetic skills and I can memorise long numbers well.

I also have a very good photographic memory.

I can look at a word, even if it is 15 letters long or more, for 5-10 seconds and guaranteed I'll never forget how to spell it.

yep, as wikipedia describes it, that's exactly what my brain does with all its benefits and downsides.



ha ha ha! So very true...

I don't have math skills, that's for sure (severe anxiety past regular math) but I can identify any insect/mammal/reptile if I ever see a pic or even get a description of it.
Very good memory/categorizing skills. Not sure it really qualifies though..

Sincerely,
Matt

I see words and sheet music in my mind. I also pick up on emotions - which differ from social cues and messes me up completely.

Yeah, I've done that before. Its called empathy but in this case its more like emotional telepathy. Confusing as He** because it often contradicts what some says she is feeling. ( I get this more from females, but not exclusively).

Matt

number to emotion synesthesia

TheSunAlsoRises

Simply fascinating.

I wonder just how common is cross modality between the senses in people on the spectrum?

TheSunAlsoRises

Although I've never been told by a professional (and would like to be told sometime in the future for confirmation), I'm pretty sure at this point that I have a form of spatial-sequence/time-space synesthesia. All of my "splinter skills" regarding my memory for facts and dates is because of the various spatial sequences I see in my head. Also, I love color coding and associations in general. It just "feels right" for certain numbers/dates to go together, even without my visual timelines. It is very jarring to see my associations out of order. I think it's partially an Aspie thing, too, due to my hatred of change of any kind. I also have always instantly liked or disliked words/names/colors/etc. just based on how they look or sound. I "like" or "dislike" all the letters of the alphabet, for instance, with varying intensities. For instance, I loathe "W," but I adore "V." I probably have mild inanimate object personification.

It's handy to memorize things, though, that's for sure. I have a terrible short-term memory, especially for numbers that aren't in date form. Delving into the synesthesia research made me recently figure out that I can do an Aspie-type of "chunking" to keep number strings in working memory. If possible, I turn the numbers into dates/years or I Love Lucy episode numbers. Seeing 19453273 all at once is very overwhelming for me, and I could never remember it. But if I turn it into visualizing 1945-Hiroshima bombing, 32- "Lucy Gets Ricky on the Radio," and 73- "The French Revue," I can remember it in a snap.

I think my photographic memory for textbooks derives from this, too, because I can just go back in my mind and "see" the sequences of how the different pages looked. I love words in general, so this is why vocabulary and foreign languages have always been such a breeze for me. This is why I was hyperlexic as a child- I just can recall a multitude of new words and their meanings just because it's exciting and intriguing to me. Very interesting stuff, and I wish I could be in a research study to learn more about it. I'm not a savant by any means, but I certainly have splinter skills and abilities most others around me don't have.

Daniel Tammet credits his synesthesia for his savant skills. When I hear people on the spectrum say certain keywords relating to the ability to see something not readily visible to others or outside commonly recognized norms, it usually points to a synesthetic like experience. In an interview with Morley Safer, Jake Barnett talked about a fourth dimension...that aided him in his ability to do math. The splinter skills, abilities, or gifts in the Autistic seems to function along side other variables.......besides the ASD criteria listed in the DSM.



TheSunAlsoRises