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Home/Services & Programs / Savant Syndrome
Savant syndrome is a rare condition in which persons with various developmental disorders, including autistic disorder, have an amazing ability and talent. The condition can be congenital (genetic or inborn), or can be acquired later in childhood, or even in adults. The savant skills coexist with various neurodevelopmental conditions including autistic disorder and/or intellectual disability, or other conditions such as genetic (chromosomal) disorders, brain malformation or injury, or other disease that occurs before (prenatal) during (perinatal) or after birth (postnatal), or even later in childhood or adult life (acquired savant).
How common is savant syndrome?
Approximately one in 10 persons with autistic disorder has some savant skills. In the case of intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, as well as brain injuries, savant skills occur at a rate of less than 1%. Thus, not all savants are autistic, and not all people with autism are savants.
What causes savant syndrome?
While a number of theories have been put forth to date, no single theory can explain all savants.
What is the ‘treatment’ for savant syndrome?
Savant syndrome is not a disorder or disease, it's a condition where extraordinary skills and memory are grafted onto a more basic brain dysfunction that rises from a developmental disability or some other form of central nervous system disease or disorder.
What is the range of savant skills?
Savant skills exist over a spectrum of abilities.
- The most common savant abilities are called splinter skills. These include behaviors such as obsessive preoccupation with, and memorization of, music and sports trivia, license plate numbers, maps, historical facts, or obscure items such as vacuum cleaner motor sounds, for example.
- Talented savants are those persons in whom musical, artistic, mathematical or other special skills are more prominent and highly honed, usually within an area of single expertise, and are very conspicuous when viewed against their overall handicap.
- The term prodigious savant is reserved for those very rare persons in this already uncommon condition where the special skill or ability is so outstanding that it would be spectacular even if it were to occur in a non-handicapped person. In such a non-handicapped person the term “genius” would be applied. There are probably fewer than 75 prodigious savants living worldwide at the present time who would meet this high threshold of special skill.
What are typical savant skills?
Typically, a particular skill occurs singularly in each person with savant syndrome. However, in some instances multiple skills occur in the same person. Regardless of the type of skill, it is always combined with exceptional memory.
Music is generally the most common savant skill - usually playing piano by ear and almost always with perfect pitch. Musical performance abilities are dominate, but outstanding composing skills have been documented as well, most often linked to performance ability, but not necessarily so. The triad of mental disability, blindness and musical genius occurs with a curious, conspicuous frequency in reports over this past century.
Artistic talent, usually painting or drawing, is seen next most frequently. Other forms of artistic talent can occur as well, such as sculpting. Lightning calculating or other mathematical skills, such as the ability to compute multi-digit prime numbers contrasted with the inability to perform even simple arithmetic, has often been reported.
Calendar calculating is curiously and conspicuously common among savants, particularly considering the rarity of that obscure skill in the general population. Beyond being able to name the day of the week that a date will occur on in any particular year, calendar calculating includes being able to name all the years in the next 100 in which Easter will fall on March 23rd, for example, or all the years in the next 20 when July 4 will fall on a Tuesday.
Other skills are occasionally seen including multilingual acquisition ability or other unusual language (polyglot) skills, exquisite sensory discrimination in smell or touch, perfect appreciation of passing time without access to a clock face, or outstanding knowledge in specific fields such as neurophysiology, statistics, history or navigation, to name a few.
I have a child who has these special skills. What is the best approach to use in dealing with those?
The first step in helping any child who shows special savant skills, is to have a complete evaluation to determine what the basic disability or disorder is that underlies their special abilities.
How often do savants lose their special skills?
Not very often. Quite to the contrary, continued practice and use of the special skills generally leads to greater ability, more facility and increased expertise.
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