What Is An Autistic Savant?

The term Savant as shown in the Oxford English dictionary means a 'learned person'

A child with Autistic Savant is someone who has autism but also has a quite extraordinary ability in one or more fields thus a Savant or 'learned person'. This brilliance in one field is in stark contrast to their limitations in their abilities towards other areas in learning and behaviour.

Autism is a developmental condition that stems from genetic or neurological causes. It has no cure and research is still ongoing as to the exact reason why some children develop it and others don't. An autistic child will struggle in certain areas of their life such as socialising and learning basic skills, but yet show a unique ability which is quite unrivalled in other areas.

However it is not true that all autistic children will also have Savant syndrome or visa versa.

It can be the case however that some Savants have no other dysfunctional traits whatsoever although these exceptional skills may well have been triggered by some abnormality in the brain in the first place.

Almost all autistic Savants exhibit very good memory skills in that they may well be able to memorize the most unbelievable things in one area but then hopeless in another for example they may be particularly good with numbers, but terrible when it comes to remembering names!

It is a common trait for adults with autistic savant to be very talented musically or artistically.

Studies have concluded that it might be the case that everyone has savant like abilities, but it is not until a switch has occurred in the brain, however triggered that allows the right side to take over. It thought that Savants have their unique abilities because they use deeper subconscious thought processes to pull the information to the surface of the conscious part of the brain. Either way a Savant has unique talents unlike most other human beings.

There are many ways that Savant abilities can manifest themselves, from working out almost impossible mathematical equations, to mind blowing feats of memory.

Many famous and well known people throughout the years have been diagnosed as being autistic Savant so it's nothing to be ashamed of

In the movie Rain man starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, the star of the film is a person with autistic savant. This in many ways helped to champion the cause of autism and bring it in to the public arena, although this may have inadvertently led to the misapprehension by many people that the two conditions go hand in hand, they don't necessarily however.

So if your child is showing autistic traits but also has quite unique or astonishing and almost uncharacteristic abilities in other areas, he or she may well be an autistic Savant - a person with a particular gift that way surpasses the abilities of most other people.