People with autism often have special gifts and talents.
Some are autistic savants - uniquely gifted prodigies in areas like math, music and language. Others surprise their parents, therapists and teachers with abilities that no one ever asked about - perfect pitch, an impressive talent for drafting and rendering, an amazing eye for morphological detail in plants and animals, or a terrific ability to learn and speak foreign languages.
In recent days, I've read about autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire, and received a gorgeous, full-color coffee table book called Drawing Autism, which is stuffed with outstanding artistic expressions by autistic artists of all ages. And just this morning, I received an email from my cousin with a link to a series of videos about a blind, autistic musician with impressive talents.
Two days ago, for the first time, I heard my son singing in the shower. And - who knew? - he has a lovely soprano voice, and can imitate the voices of professional vocalists he's heard on TV and radio!
If you're an adult with autism, what are your gifts? If you're a parent, what are your child's?
I am an electrical engineer, endowed with Asperger’s (professionally diagnosed)
I have the ability to recall electrical and building codes, not necessarily word for word, but to remember each aspect of the codes and be able to pull the right code book off the shelf, open it to the right page, and point to the right quadrant of the page which covers that concept.
My vocabulary is so vast I have to dumb down everything I say in order to be understood. I can do technical translation and basic conversation in German, Spanish, French and Russian, and can type on a Russian keyboard.
My memory is essentially encyclopedic.
My career fell into a pattern where I always end up getting assigned the cutting edge projects where there is no blueprint on how to do it, because it has never been done before.
I can paint works of art, but I can also take an automatic transmission apart and put it back together.
There is a tremendous downside to all of this; I can enter a new job at a new firm, check the work on a project or two and disclose to them that they are doing things fundamentally wrong or in violation of some code they were oblivious to, and suddenly I am not very popular. I recently determined a major brand of system analysis software gave wrong answers, even though this software has been sold for years. How is it I am the first engineer to check to see if the software gave the right answers? I have checked my discovery with engineers with other engineering firms to make certain it was not my own mistake, and everyone has agreed with me. (It involved something rather basic and easy to demonstrate) To say I am unpopular with that software company is an understatement.
(This was the second time I have found a catastrophic flaw in a popular software; the other firm eventually admitted their mistake and fixed it)
Asperger’s gives me the mind set to think outside the box and not be constrained by peer pressure.
I give all of this description because I do not know of a name for this gift; it would condense down to something like integration and application of interdisciplinary knowledge. Or maybe Renaissance man.
Two of my brothers are Renaissance men who have left their mark. (Can’t tell you their inventions to protect their privacy)
Two of my Aspie sons have the gift of playing cello beautifully, and one is a gifted artist
Great blog regarding those with autism who shine in other areas and have great achievements. It is wonderful to hear information like this to share with others who might otherwise think their child will not be good at anything if he/she has autism. Great read! – Lindsay
My son learnt how to read and write by himself as a toddler. At 6 years old he also self-taught how to do math problems and knows his times tables all the way to 12. He never makes a mistake. He can also create amazing marble run structures and domino runs, legos, figure out puzzles… His visual and memorization skills are way above average. He’s autistic – not Asperger’s or PDD-NOS.
My son is only 6 years old, but we have known since he was a toddler that he had some talent as an artist. He loves to draw and paint pictures, and has attracted the attention of art teachers (even though he is in special ed) who want to spend extra time with him and hone his skills. My son is autistic and does have very strong interest in art and astronomy. He absolutely loves the solar system, and that’s what he was for Halloween!
My son can tell you the day and the date of almost any event that he can remember, and also future days and dates. He also has some mad math skills and has been drawing 3D bubble letters and intricate drawings since he was three years old! It makes me sad thought that when I research these skills of his, it comes with yet another label. Savant or “Idiot savant”. Here I was just proud of him for reading several grade levels above his peers! Autistic kids are so special. I don’t claim that he’s “normal” but I sure do love him and I hope that the world treats him nicely when I’m gone someday