§b¶W¤H (Idiot Savants)

(From Hermelin, B.(2001) Bright Splinters of the Mind. London : Jessica Kingsley)

 

l          The accounts of ¡¥idiot savants¡¦ had been given for over 100 years. The Frenchman Alfred Binet, who invented the first intelligence test, had introduced the term to describe those people who had great learning difficulties and could not cope with life on their own, but yet showed an outstanding ability in a specific area.

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l          It is noteworthy that savant ability is much more frequently found in those who suffer from some kind of autism. At most one or two in 200 of those within the autistic spectrum disorder can justifiably be regarded as having a genuine talent.

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l          Savant talents are usually evident in the domains of number or date calculation, the visual arts and music. There are some rare cases with high-level abilities in the area of language.

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l          Of all the savants that have been investigated half in fact had IQs below 75, that is below the average range, while the other 50% of cases fell into the lower normal range of intellectual functioning on at least some sub-tests of intelligence.

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l          It is characteristic of such individuals to show ¡¥islands of intelligence¡¦. Their IQ profiles are more uneven than those of other mentally impaired people.

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l          Furthermore, the sub-tests in which autistic individuals without special talents tend to do well are the same as those in which savants also excel. Thus, one could possibly conclude that it might be the autism-related component functions of cognition that are evident in savants¡¦ intelligence results.

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l          As with other savant gifts, mental processes that might not be evident in other behavioral areas become manifest in those activities which are directly talent related.

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l          The mental impairments from which savants suffer set boundaries to the development of their talents. There are no geniuses about. Their mental limitations disallow and preclude an awareness of innovative developments in the areas of their special abilities. Their success will always have to be judged against the background of their general cognitive and affective restrictions.

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