April is World Autism Month, and in this edition of Neurokrish Immersion, we pay tribute to the late Dr. Oliver Sacks and his profound insights into the savant brain.
Savants are individuals who display extraordinary abilities despite significant challenges. Autism was first described by two experts, Leo Kanner, an Austrian-American psychiatrist, and Hans Asperger, an Austrian pediatrician. Interestingly, both worked around the same time on opposite sides of the world, without apparent communication, yet arrived at similar conclusions. They described children who were intelligent but preferred solitude and showed an intense need for sameness.
Oliver Sacks was a peripatetic neurologist, famous for his detailed clinical observations and reflective writing on neurological conditions. Educated at Oxford and trained in the U.S., he later became a professor at several esteemed institutions. He is best known for his work “Awakenings,” made into a film starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.
Sacks asked us to reconsider how we see autism. Too often, those with autism are viewed through a deficit model. Yet, as he noted, some individuals possess preserved or even enhanced mental qualities. They may be described as mentally complete in certain aspects, even if challenged in others.
He referred to the distinctive clarity and detail found in autistic thinking as “concreteness” a vivid and precise way of processing the world, uninfluenced by abstraction. This unique perspective enables some autistic individuals to exhibit exceptional memory in visual, musical, or lexical domains.
One historical example Sacks shared was Gottfried Mind, a Swiss artist known for his lifelike drawings of cats. Another was a man with autism who recreated the intricacies of a watch in astonishing detail, including all mechanical elements.
There were also the human calculators, people like Jedediah Buxton, who performed monumental calculations mentally over weeks or months while living their everyday lives. Others displayed remarkable abilities in reading, construction, and even bodily movement without formal training.
Despite their brilliance, many savants struggle with generalizing information or integrating abstract concepts. Their memories are often locked in time and place, with little separation between the trivial and the important.
Sacks’ work urges us to look beyond traditional intelligence. Emotional intelligence and Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences have broadened how we think about human capability. Gardner proposed that intelligence comes in many forms, linguistic, logical, musical, spatial, bodily, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic.
This concept is vital in working with individuals on the autism spectrum. Understanding that intelligence is diverse and personalized helps families, educators, and professionals nurture the strengths of each individual.
Here are a few takeaways:
- Not everyone with autism is a savant, and not all savant skills are extraordinary.
- Many individuals on the spectrum retain areas of strong intelligence.
- Identifying and enhancing these abilities is critical to building care and education programs.
As we observe World Autism Month, let us focus on recognizing the exceptional retained abilities of those with autism. Let us help transform these strengths into pathways for achievement and social inclusion.
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