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+--- Thread: Do you have any savant skills? (/showthread.php?tid=21322)
Do you have any savant skills? - 142857 - 12-29-2010 08:27 AM
I was just reading about the movie "Mozart and the Whale", and how the idea of people on the autistic spectrum having savant skills is a stereotype.
I don't have any skills that I would really call savant.
I used to do the mental arithmetic thing. I could multiply any 3 digit number by any 2 digit number with no apparent hesitation - most people would give me easy numbers, thinking they could catch me out by using the biggest numbers they could, like "99 * 959", when 9s are the 2nd easiest digit to work with (after 1, of course). I could also divide any number up to 10,000 by any single digit number without apparent hesitation, out to as many decimal places as anyone wanted. That is where "142857" comes in, it is a circular sequence of numbers that makes any division by 7 possible out to as many decimal places as you want. Someone accused me of using a trick because I couldn't give accurate decimals for division by 7, so I sat down with a pen and paper and worked out the pattern.
I used to also tell people to give me any popular song that I would have heard in the past 10 or 20 years, and I would write out the words off the top of my head. I wasn't always 100% right. I am good at rote learning, memorising pages of text or sequences of numbers. Nothing spectacular though.
In terms of my family, my maternal grandfather was a musical savant. It was his side of the family where the autism genes obviously came from, although I don't know if he was autistic. He taught himself to read music as a small child, when he would turn the pages of sheet music for his Aunt when she played the piano at the old silent movies.
Nobody realized that he could read music until they saw him sat at the piano one day sight reading some sheet music and playing. He was discovered playing violin at a bush dance in North Queensland by an agent when he was a teenager, and he was a full-time professional musician his whole life after that, into his 70s. The photo albums from the world tours he went on in the 1920s caused my 2 uncles on that side to never speak to each other again, after a dispute over who had the right to inherit them.
He changed instruments several times through his career, and each time he would have lessons for 2 weeks to get the technique right and then simply turn up for band/orchestra rehearsals and play. He was usually acknowledged as the best practitioner in Australia at whatever instrument he was specialising in at the time.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - tintinophile691 - 12-29-2010 08:42 AM
Certainly not. I only remember things if I want to. And other than that, I have a TERRIBLE memory.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - AspieMomma - 12-29-2010 01:59 PM
Your ability to recall words to songs accurately - is it like echolalia?
I can recite entire movies verbatim, but I'd hardly call that a savant skill, most people have told me its annoying.
I did know a girl in college who had a bizarre savant skill. You could give her a date, and she'd tell you the day of the week, who she saw, and what they were wearing with great accuracy. I don't know how far back she could go, at least a few months.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Greginjersey - 12-29-2010 05:46 PM
AspieMomma Wrote:
Your ability to recall words to songs accurately - is it like echolalia?
I can recite entire movies verbatim, but I'd hardly call that a savant skill, most people have told me its annoying.
I did know a girl in college who had a bizarre savant skill. You could give her a date, and she'd tell you the day of the week, who she saw, and what they were wearing with great accuracy. I don't know how far back she could go, at least a few months.
I can recite entire movies verbatim, but I'd hardly call that a savant skill, most people have told me its annoying.
I did know a girl in college who had a bizarre savant skill. You could give her a date, and she'd tell you the day of the week, who she saw, and what they were wearing with great accuracy. I don't know how far back she could go, at least a few months.
I think Echolalia has more to do with a person trying to get a grasp on how to effectively communicate or echoing (repeat) what is said to that person according to my mom I used to do this continuously when my mom was told that I would never ever speak and in fact echolaling was how I learned to talk... quite beneficial I must say 
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - kevout2 - 12-29-2010 06:02 PM
I can't say that I have truly savant skills but I am known in my family not only for my ability to remember dates; but my ability to figure out the day of the week a certain event occured.
I can determine such days of the week going back to 1753; the first year the modern calendar as we know it was being employed. (1752 was a long year to catch to correct for cumulative errors in alignment with the seasons; I should study more about it.) I can do this by using Dominical Letters (A through G; one letter for each regular year; 2 for leap years) and Solar Cycles (28 year cycles; has nothing to do with sun spot cycles; don't know why they're called solar cycles.)
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on a Friday. The (U.S.) Declaration of Independence was signed on a Thursday. Delaware was the first (U.S.) state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on Friday, December 7, 1787 (Dominical Letter = G) ; 154 years before the attack on Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7, 1941 (Dominical Letter = E).
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Lucid lunacy - 12-29-2010 06:48 PM
None except maybe my amazing ability to suck at everything.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Duckfetishgirl - 12-29-2010 07:53 PM
I am very artistic. I need to draw and sculpt more.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Callista - 12-29-2010 07:57 PM
I have a talent for improvising harmony lines, but you can't really call it a savant skill--I come from a musical family and nine years old isn't very young to start.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Duckfetishgirl - 12-29-2010 11:30 PM
Depression makes me do nothing.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Suedehead - 12-30-2010 12:18 AM
No. I'm pretty useless, actually. I don't even have normal skills.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Duckfetishgirl - 12-30-2010 01:08 AM
Suedehead Wrote:
No. I'm pretty useless, actually. I don't even have normal skills.
You have an eye for fashion and artistic ability with makeup. There are really nice paying jobs where a person gets $12,000.00 a month dressing celebrities in L.A. Idk if they have that in the uk butt you could make a killing dressing clueless chavette celebrities.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Alison - 12-30-2010 01:34 AM
When I was diagnosed, I learned not only about what Aspergers is, but how it differs from so-called "classic" autism, and also that there are skills that some of us present, not as obvious as savantism, but what the doctor called "splinter savantism". Which is that in some of us, although not all, our brain super-specializes in a certain area, typically in either art, or words, or memory, or maths.
I remember saying in my naivety, that if you're interested in something, then of course you're going to work at it and improve. But the doctor got quite thoughtful at this point, and told me that yes that's true, but that he'd had twenty years working with Aspies, and there was something we had, some little quirk of brain chemistry or whatever, that let us do things which were not explained by simply dedicated interest and working at it.
By this time I was intrigued and he got out the IQ test I'd done when I was diagnosed. He said that in his opinion my "splinter savantism" is hyperlexia. My math sux, but my reading, writing, and comprehensive ability was right off the scale, apparently.
Since then, I've looked out, not only for Aspie children in my class, but also for what they obsess over, and looked at case studies of aspies. My daughter is a terrific artist, she can capture just about anything, any pose, any expression, with not *accuracy* exactly, she just seems to capture it's essence and render it more beautiful. Which is why I was surprised when she very pragmatically decided to study science.
And then there's "mathletes" and engineers, doctors and scientists, computer wizards and physicists, hyperlexics (ahem!) and artists. It's almost as if those of us with splinter savantism are becoming a race of humans who super-specialize, each in our own field while retaining enough skills to manage in the outside world (however clumsily!), which the pure Savants cannot.
Specialisation in nature is not generally a good thing as the animal goes extinct if it cannot change to meet changing environments, but in us super-specialisation seems to be spread out through the Aspie population, different nodalities of specialisation occuring. Plus it seems to me from reading these posts that a lot of us are saying that we have no "savant skills" as such; but then going on to show how we have certain abilities that are what my doctor called splinter savant skills.
I'm really excited about this time in human history, when there are more and more of us being born (or diagnosed). I'd even venture to say that there are some of us who super-specialise in social conditions: and this is so prevalent in the general population that we call them Neurotypicals!
Vive la difference!
Alison
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - AspieMomma - 12-30-2010 01:55 AM
Wonderful insight, Alison!
I had a string of talents when I was younger, including above average artistic and musical ability, but i definitely excel best at writing/reading. I am definitely hyperlexic, I learned to read at 3 and always read many grade levels ahead. I would turn in assignments, and my teachers would insist it wasn't my work, but It always was. I was in a regular english class in high school, and my teacher insisted she pull me out and put me in the AP class that was a year ahead. I got a perfect score on the AP test. I write poetry, but it is usually very freestyle and personal, I don't share it.
Hmm, I'm gonna have to chew on that. Maybe I need to take that into consideration for long term career goals.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Alison - 12-30-2010 04:04 AM
Good point about the musical ability: I meant to add that in my list of specialisations but somehow omitted to put it in. Also language would be another one.
Splinter savantism I find a fascinating concept, as you can probably tell. And unlike the "pure" savantism, it is hugely useful to be able to perservate for years at a time and become a total expert at one thing, while still retaining enough ability that you can earn a living at it and survive without needing huge amounts of help or accommodation in day-to-day life, as some savants need.
Think Charles Darwin, spending fourteen years studying barnacles!
Alison (back to studying Kanji - 月曜日、火曜日、水曜日… )
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - TheFartMan - 12-30-2010 04:12 AM
I'm only good at one thing, electronics.
I stink at anything else.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Alison - 12-30-2010 04:19 AM
TheFartMan Wrote:
I'm only good at one thing, electronics.
I stink at anything else.
I stink at anything else.
Well, there you go: your splinter savantism would be electronics. I can't hold a conversation to save my life, I often don't know one person from another (face-blindness) I confuse social signals and just don't see facial expressions at all.
But I'm brilliant with the written word and love the patterns that language makes on a page, like silvery drops of rainwater falling into a still pool of water, spreading and making myriad ripples within ripples, a universe of beautiful forms ...
I was always getting into strife with Mum for wandering out into the rain and staring at puddles for hours on end. She said she could understand the sense of wonder when I was a toddler, but that it was a bit over-the-top when I was 18.
Alison
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Duckfetishgirl - 12-30-2010 04:28 AM
Intuition is a good one too. I am an Empath.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Genesis - 12-30-2010 05:19 AM
Art and Computers
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Shrek - 12-30-2010 05:41 AM
AFter enough memorization, memorize long stretches of movie dialogue
Aptitudes
Foreign language (Spanish and Latin)
Computers
Math
Science
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - 142857 - 12-30-2010 09:03 AM
@Alison, thanks for adding some depth to the topic.
My take on what you say about "splinter savantism" is that true savantism is an extreme natural talent that takes little or no hard work or development to attain, and is usually seen in low functioning individuals. While "splinter savantism" is where a strong natural aptitude that is refined to a high level through hyperfocus and intense interest in the use of that aptitude.
A couple of my autistic "disabilities" have turned into very useful talents (career-wise) over the years.
(1) The tendency to take things very literally. If someone shows me a business or technical requirement (related to a required enhancement in IT) I will read it and take every word literally. I pick up on ambiguities and gaps, things left "assumed" that should not be left assumed, and take note of where the literal interpretation of the document does not make sense to me. I then clarify these areas with whoever is responsible for the document. I think that this is somewhat preferable to the approach taken by most people, which is to plough on regardless and make assumptions which later cause the project to blow out or fail. But, of course, I am sometimes seen as being pig-headed for insisting that things are done properly.
(2) I often struggle with new concepts. Like when I started reading, I just didn't "pick it up" the way most kids my age did, and as a result I was the last kid in my class to start on the reading material (which was a series of lessons, with the smartest kid in the class doing lesson #1, then progressing to lesson #2 and then the 2nd smartest kid doing lesson #1 and so on). My teacher thought I was retarded and I was sent off for testing to see if I belonged in a special school. Towards the end of the year it simply "clicked" and I started reading at pretty much an adult level - I was ranked as the best reader out of 70 kids early the next year, in 2nd grade. That was a pattern throughout school, and in my IT career as well.
As a result, what I find is that I am very good at passing knowledge on to users, trainee programmers, clients, colleagues and so on because I can break processes and concepts into the very basic, almost "quantum", units of knowledge that I myself have to work out in order to understand new concepts.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Minerva - 12-30-2010 02:48 PM
I do if hyperlexia counts. I learned to read sometime before 3 years old, and had a 6th grade reading level by kindergarten. My mom and maternal grandmother learned to read at about 18 months, so it runs in the family. I have been good with computers since I was 3. I read really fast and once I hear a fact or read some unit of information in, say, a textbook, I am likely to never forget it. I scored a 36 on the reading section of the ACT, and 34 on science (I missed only 1 question, but I guess enough people missed 0 that missing one was a 34). I pick up the written portion of a foreign language rather quickly.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - EDoyle - 12-30-2010 11:03 PM
Well, I've got a great memory for lyrics, and I can tell you if any number from 1-100 is prime with great accuracy. But other than that, no.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - micgrace - 12-31-2010 12:21 AM
I could read and write as an adult and do maths at age 5 well before going to school. Funny thing I gradually lost the ability as I learned to fit into a hostile NT world called school.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Semicolon - 12-31-2010 01:14 AM
Does awesomeness count as a savant skill?
Not only am I awesome in general, I am absolutely necessary when coding in C++ (and other C languages), Perl, SQL, Pascal, etc., and I can easily link related clauses in a sentence.
(Now I just have to wait for all of the programmers on AFF to come up with crazy workarounds in order to prove that semicolons are not "absolutely necessary". Have fun.
)
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Alison - 12-31-2010 01:18 AM
Semicolon Wrote:
Does awesomeness count as a savant skill?
Not only am I awesome in general, I am absolutely necessary when coding in C++ (and other C languages), Perl, SQL, Pascal, etc., and I can easily link related clauses in a sentence.
(Now I just have to wait for all of the programmers on AFF to come up with crazy workarounds in order to prove that semicolons are not "absolutely necessary". Have fun.)
Not only am I awesome in general, I am absolutely necessary when coding in C++ (and other C languages), Perl, SQL, Pascal, etc., and I can easily link related clauses in a sentence.
(Now I just have to wait for all of the programmers on AFF to come up with crazy workarounds in order to prove that semicolons are not "absolutely necessary". Have fun.
)
As a published author, I must admit, I couldn't manage as well without you, Semicolon! You are a good friend.
Alison
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - d_olson27 - 12-31-2010 01:38 AM
I taught myself to read. I don't remember how old I was, but by the time I got into school, I could read pretty well.
Not sure I would call this a savant skill (and I'm not even sure if it's a splinter savantism), but I do have a very scientific mind. I've learned to apply that to almost everything, which allows me to pick up on things pretty quickly.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Duckfetishgirl - 12-31-2010 06:07 AM
If acting like an emo freak is a skill then I haz it.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - DoggieDog - 01-01-2011 04:40 AM
Nope.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - InvaderMeer - 02-02-2011 07:58 PM
A lot of people think my painting is some sort of savant skill. Perhaps it is. Some people think my encyclopedic knowledge of zoology is another savant skill.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Yuji - 02-02-2011 09:11 PM
No. I don't. This is made all the more painful by the stereotype of autistic savants in the media, as well as the fact that my parents and older brother are both highly intelligent and neurotypical, and have accused my lack of savant skills on "not trying hard enough."
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - nialll - 02-02-2011 10:10 PM
i'm pretty ordinary. i'm good at music, but it's not like i'm better than the average person who's good at music.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Duckfetishgirl - 02-02-2011 10:35 PM
I guess i am a savant since I suck at being independent at this time. Working on it with my therapist.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Duckfetishgirl - 02-02-2011 11:11 PM
I'm a tardburger.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - TocaPuppy - 02-06-2011 11:28 AM
I pick up language very well, but I lived in Sardinia as a child so english wasn't the only language I used. I find music and new instruments easy to learn and I can sing. I'm very artistic. I'm pretty good with puzzles. I'm not great with maths but I'm not below average at it. I'm actually very good with facial expressions. It's the way people speak that confuses me. I'm also good at seeing when someone is lying (and getting better at not telling them they're lying). I have quite a broad spectrum of skills, but nothing to the extent that I would term savant.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - ScottishWildcat - 02-07-2011 12:15 AM
I learned to read music on my own after my guitar teacher disgusted me from the instrument; after that I turned to keyboards for a while.
At the moment, I am reviewing Orlando Gibbons' keyboard works from the perspective of computer-assisted music. I definitively need to take lessons - in which form I don't know - to learn counterpoint very seriously as it seems that I have quite good melodic ideas.
OT for the musicians among us: I had and still have a strong preference for unusual meters (like 5/4 - 7/8 or 9/16).
It also seems that I have a very precise long-term memory. All I can think about for the moment.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - black butterfly - 03-08-2011 01:09 AM
here and there but nothing major..
i can remember some odd dates here and there and like i am good with genral knowledge...
what is a savant anyway? i dont care evn if i ahve savant skills like what does it matter.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - black butterfly - 03-08-2011 01:10 AM
black butterfly Wrote:
here and there but nothing major..
i can remember some odd dates here and there and like i am good with genral knowledge...i am good at music and arty and like sciencey things but realy....
what is a savant anyway? i dont care evn if i ahve savant skills like what does it matter.
i can remember some odd dates here and there and like i am good with genral knowledge...i am good at music and arty and like sciencey things but realy....
what is a savant anyway? i dont care evn if i ahve savant skills like what does it matter.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - morty - 03-08-2011 01:33 AM
When I'm playing in a band that uses printed music in a folder, I can always remember the exact shade and texture of the paper a specific tune is printed on. Saves a lot of time - just grab the piece that's on the right paper. I need good light, though. No low, murky dens for me.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Aeolienne - 03-20-2011 07:01 PM
Not that I know of.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Duckfetishgirl - 03-20-2011 11:27 PM
I think I lost mine. Inactivity does that.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Alison - 03-21-2011 12:21 AM
Speaking of skills, something interesting along those lines occurred last night while the family were watching television.
More accurately, my husband was watching television, I was sitting beside him studying kanji with the book on my lap, and our daughter was using her artistic talent, by sitting cross-legged on the floor on a spreadsheet, carefully crafting beautiful hand-made figurines in modelling clay.
These things are true works of art, and to my mind rival the best resin-cast figurines you can find in the shops. They are hand painted and she clothes them in appropriate materials, even thin leather scraps for boots. Last night, she was delicately painting facial features onto one tiny figurine using the head of a pin dipped into ink to do the eyelashes.
Anyway, an ad came on the television, we were being urged to support a primary school initiative to draw pictures, "all proceeds to go to autistic research. If you know any families of parents struggling with autism, sponsor and later come along to buy, the artworks of primary school students".
Now, I hasten to add, this was not autistic students doing the artwork (artistic autistics?), but NTs. And the research, I'd guess from the sub-text, would be along the lines of how to stop more of us from being born. Because as stated, it was the parents of autistics, not the autistics themselves, who were being "helped" by this little artistic excursion.
Anyway, my daughter looked up from her intricate work with a snort of sardonic amusement. And I paraphrased the line from the movie "Me, Myself and Irene" where a little black guy is being sarcastic when he thinks somebody is taking the p**s because of his race: "And you know, we black people just L-O-O-V-E fried chicken!" I said, "And you know, we autistics need as M-U-C-H help as we can git!"
My husband roared with laughter, and we went on to talk about talent, artistic, linguistic and otherwise, and how so many NTs really don't think ANY of us have any whatsoever.
Alison (mostly harmless... )
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Shrek - 03-21-2011 05:25 AM
It gets very close. Very good at math and some sciences, foreign languages, and computer languages.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - awiddershinlife - 03-21-2011 07:40 AM
I was so good at remembering phone numbers that people in the office I worked in just asked me instead of looking them up. With the advent of cell phones though, I no longer have a calling. I dont even know my kids' numbers byond their speed dial.
I was reading by the time I was in kindergarten, but I dont know how young I was when I learned to read - one day I just suddenly could read.
I am a bit psychic.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Aeolienne - 03-21-2011 01:25 PM
Shrek Wrote:
It gets very close. Very good at math and some sciences, foreign languages, and computer languages.
What does it mean to be good at foreign languages?
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - marrria_ - 03-22-2011 05:30 AM
History! specially remembering dates, names, places, leaders, wars, acts, etc. Geography, Astronomy and I also have an excellent visual memory...(?) Not sure if that counts lol I may see you for a short period of time and I will remember perfectly your face for years o: Same for objects, places, names (no matter how long or 'complicated' they are), numbers and equations... even graphs and definitions o;
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - 142857 - 03-30-2011 10:25 AM
I am an ironing savant. At least when it comes to business shirts. I can iron a shirt in a fraction of the time it would take most people. I'm self-taught when it comes to ironing, and so I had no idea that it was supposed to take more than about 30 seconds to iron a shirt.
I don't use the pointy end (except for the shoulders) - the blunt end is more efficient, at least for the XXXL shirts I wear. So I have to get a board without a rack at the blunt end - or at least a rack that can be unscrewed and taken off. I don't gently guide the iron pointy-end-first, I push down on the iron and push it side-on so that it covers more area.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - surrealgirl - 03-30-2011 05:12 PM
I started reading spontaneously at the age of 3, and had post-grad level of reading comprehension in 5th or 6th grade. *shrug*. I don't think it's savantism, but I can't imagine life without words...and nobody except my father has ever beat me at scrabble
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - 142857 - 03-30-2011 05:32 PM
surrealgirl Wrote:
I started reading spontaneously at the age of 3, and had post-grad level of reading comprehension in 5th or 6th grade. *shrug*. I don't think it's savantism, but I can't imagine life without words...and nobody except my father has ever beat me at scrabble
That is hyperlexia. I think that is referred to a splinter savant skill:
Quote:
However, savant skills are best understood as part of a broad spectrum. Some 10% of autistic people are known to have some area of competence which is in contrast to their overall disability; this is termed a ‘splinter’ savant skill. When these ‘splinter’ skills are more organized and coherent, it is appropriate to call the people who possess them ‘talented savants,’ according to a definition proposed by Darold Treffert M.D. and which is now gaining wide acceptance. Thousands of ‘talented savants’ are alive in the world today.
http://www.savantacademy.org/myths.php
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - windy - 03-30-2011 06:14 PM
142857 Wrote:
surrealgirl Wrote:
I started reading spontaneously at the age of 3, and had post-grad level of reading comprehension in 5th or 6th grade. *shrug*. I don't think it's savantism, but I can't imagine life without words...and nobody except my father has ever beat me at scrabble
That is hyperlexia. I think that is referred to a splinter savant skill:
Quote:
However, savant skills are best understood as part of a broad spectrum. Some 10% of autistic people are known to have some area of competence which is in contrast to their overall disability; this is termed a ‘splinter’ savant skill. When these ‘splinter’ skills are more organized and coherent, it is appropriate to call the people who possess them ‘talented savants,’ according to a definition proposed by Darold Treffert M.D. and which is now gaining wide acceptance. Thousands of ‘talented savants’ are alive in the world today.
My middle son also had that skill... spontaneously reading he was almost 4 when we first noticed. (His first book that he read to us on day one was 110 pages!)
My oldest son could draw in perfect perspective and 3D - people running, jumping etc., when he was 3 or 4 years old. (he could NOT read though until he was about 6/7, but then caught up so fast he tested at 11th grade level at age 8)
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - sassafras - 03-30-2011 08:16 PM
I'd say sort of. I don't have any crazy skill like being able to do complicated arithmetic in my head, or remembering dates, but in the areas of math, music, and language, I am naturally very talented. (Those areas are very closely related, I believe.)
I'm very musical, and I was always at the top of my violin school without practicing. My sisters hated me for that. I was basically a math whiz in high school, and still regret not studying it in university. Foreign languages are pretty easy for me, and it only takes a little exposure to a language for me to be able to follow along in conversation, even if I am not actually able to speak the language well yet. My sister is fluent in Spanish, and she is always amazed that despite only knowing how to say "hi," "how are you," and "you're an a**hole" in Spanish myself, I can understand a lot of what she and her husband say.
I can also remember conversations I've had verbatim. People hate this in arguments because they'll claim they said something else and I can quote the conversation exactly, even if it was months ago.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - qwert - 03-30-2011 08:19 PM
I scored really low on the math part of an IQ test and just a bit below average on the overall thing, but I scored on the top 5 percentile relative to my age group on a test to see how much I had learned about math and how good I was at doing math problems (which included some calculus). In the strictest definition of Savant, you could make an argument that my actual ability is far higher than what my cognitive ability suggests I should be able to do. Or you could argue that IQ tests are not that great.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Duckfetishgirl - 03-31-2011 03:29 AM
I am a math genius according to my therapist even though I have done poorly in math in the past. :C You just can't win.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - qwert - 03-31-2011 03:36 AM
Duckfetishgirl Wrote:
I am a math genius according to my therapist even though I have done poorly in math in the past. :C You just can't win.
I never did well, I think I might could do well now that I get accommodations if I reoriented my life around math. I usually got "C" grades but I took harder math classes than most people in this country.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - billyt - 03-31-2011 10:20 AM
I've always thought that I was smarter than the average bear..still think I am..but not in certain areas..I think very tangentially and creatively..most people tell me this..I've made breakthroughs at work which make people uncomfortable and even angry, then they copy it and follow me..Good at joining up unobvious unrelated things into a new fused concept or idea...been a good artist since I was a little kid..long solid memory..I see patterns and connectivity not obvious to most people..I should be an editor, eye for errors, style changes and structure as well as inconsistencies of communication approaches in othe rpeople's writing.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - johnH - 04-06-2011 02:48 PM
If I have some supper skill that is private all I can tell you right now is that I’m trying to do double digit multiplication in my head and I would be finished… if it wasn't for answering this thread.
RE: Do you have any savant skills? - Aeolienne - 04-06-2011 03:31 PM
johnH Wrote:
If I have some supper skill that is private
Then you'd be better off posting about that in this forum. 