It is probably the dream of all of us to have these extraordinary skills, but people with similar abilities have also faced or are still struggling with many health problems at some point in their life.
These people, who have unusual skills, have a syndrome called Savant and their lives are going very hard. Let’s take a look at what savant syndrome is, how it affects people, and how people with this surprising disorder continue their lives.
Savant syndrome is an extremely rare condition in which a person with any mental disorder has skills or abilities that are unusual for healthy people, which may include artistic, mathematical, or spatial abilities.
While this syndrome can occur at birth, it can also develop in early childhood and continue its development by causing various brain damage and disorders due to certain central nervous system disorders or injuries.
One study found that men were 10% more likely to have Savant syndrome than women, and when 319 people with the condition were evaluated by gender, 79% of the samples were male while only 21% were female.
There are many unexplained and unidentified question marks about savant syndrome, but researchers agree that this condition is linked to autism.
Of course, the prediction that every person with this syndrome is autistic or that all autistic people carry this disease would be wrong. Accordingly, it is estimated that only 1 in 10 people with autism have some Savant abilities. How these skills develop is just one of the issues that remains unclear.
However, there are various theories about how this disease occurs. In the first, it is thought that the mind-blindness of autistic people will cause this situation. In a second theory, it is mentioned that autism disorder is associated with the obsessive behaviors brought by Savant over time.
Although the definition of this ailment was first made by Langdon Down in 1887 as “Idiot Savant”, which means stupid scholar; this definition was later changed and renamed as Savant syndrome in its current form. This discomfort becomes much more understandable when we take a look at the unusual abilities that some people with Savant syndrome have.
The first known Savant was Jedediah Buxton, who had lightning speed in mathematical operations.
Jededidah Buxton could solve almost impossible problems in seconds and multiply multi-digit numbers in a matter of seconds. She had such a strong memory that while solving any question, she could return to that question a few months later and continue solving it from where she left off.
One of the most famous people with this condition is Kim Peek, who inspired the movie Rain Man starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman.
Peek lacked the bundles of nerves that connect the two hemispheres of his brain, and this unique condition gave him the ability to read two pages of a book at once. Known to have a below-average intelligence level, Kim Peek only took 8 seconds to read and memorize two pages, and it is estimated that he memorized about 12,000 books in his lifetime with this ability to read and understand.
Leslie Lemke, who has an extraordinary musical talent, also has this syndrome.
Known to be blind and to cope with some mental problems, Leslie never forgets the music she heard once, and although she had no musical education, she could play these melodies for a long time. Leslie’s talent was revealed by the time she was 16, and she gave many concerts around the world with a piano accompaniment.
Diagnosed with autism at the age of 3, Stephen Wilshire was able to draw a detailed panoramic picture of the city in three days, after flying in a helicopter over Rome for just half an hour.
Diagnosed with Savant’s syndrome after his tremendous painting talent was discovered in childhood, Stephen had what has come to be called the “human camera.” Stephen, who cannot communicate verbally with others due to his illness and tries to express himself with this drawing ability; Thanks to his photographic memory, he could remember the detailed details of each building, down to the number of floors and windows.
Next up is Daniel Tammet, who can speak 10 foreign languages like a native and can learn a new language in a week.
Daniel, who once made headlines with the strength of his memory when he read the value of Pi to 22,514 digits, acquired this ability after several seizures in childhood, which were diagnosed as temporal lobe epilepsy. At the same time, he developed a “language of his own”, which he called Manti, in addition to his lightning-fast mathematical operations.
Flo and Kay Lyman are the only Savant twins who can showcase the same abilities.
Flo and Kay, whose life stories are covered in the documentary The Rain Man Twins, had a memory where they could remember almost anything. When they were told any date from the past or the future, the duo could instantly tell what day it was, as well as accurately remember which artist all the songs belonged to, from the 60s to the 80s.
Alonzo Clemons, who suffered a brain injury that caused various developmental disorders, has an extraordinary sculpting ability.
Alonzo’s childhood; It was known that he could not read, walk, calculate, tie his shoes or even feed himself, but by looking at an animal or human for only a few seconds, he could create an anatomical sculpture of that person or animal quite successfully. Sarvant’s syndrome has given Alonzo a tremendous ability to capture shapes and figures in his mind.
While these skills that people with savant syndrome have sometimes show their existence singly, sometimes they can be more than one.
But whatever the type of skill, it is certain that these abilities are unquestionably something that normal people cannot possess. At this point, there is something that should be underlined that when we meet someone with autism, we should not think of him as having Savant syndrome and not be prejudiced about it, unless he or she talks about his extraordinary abilities.
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