Cognitive Savant Syndrome

Children with learning difficulties such as dyslexia, or autism, may need more support in building relationships both with adults and with other children. They are likely to be less confident in their own abilities and are more likely to be introverts. On the other hand, children with certain medical conditions may be extroverted and need additional help to build the right sort of communication and relationship skills with others.

In psychotherapy, it is important to be able to distinguish between a gifted person in crisis and one with a legitimate neurological diagnosis such as general anxiety disorder so that they can receive the proper therapy and treatment, helping them to learn to deal with their own exceptionalities (Grobman, 2009). However, if a gifted student is never taught how to self-assess and address their own anxiety, they are at risk for developing further neurological issues as a secondary way of coping with what they did not know to address from the

Most people think children with Autism will never be able to learn and function in normal society but in fact, children with autism have the ability to learn and improve their education and even their behavior which allows them to function as close if not equally in society. Depending on the level of the disease, most children diagnosed with autism still need assistance with living and job skills throughout their adulthood and later years. Most autistics are classified as “mentally retarded” but there are about 10 percent are considered “autistic savants.” (POV, 2013) A savant is defined as “someone who excels in a particular area.” (Riccio, 1999) An example of an autistic savant is someone who can play Beethoven sonata after only hearing it one time. Another great example is an autistic person can tell you if September 2, 1962 fell on a Saturday or Sunday. These examples are part of the autistic child’s brain function. Even though autistic children may seem mentally challenged they have great ability to stick to a particular motive and excel in that one

For example a physical disability may affect social skills as they may become withdrawn, their behaviour could change as they become frustrated.

These prodigies, who had reached professional status at a very young age had varying theories of causation ranging from nurture to nature. The results indicated they had elevated level of intelligence, working memory and attention to detail. Interestingly, however, their family pedigrees showed an over-representation of relatives with autism. This indicates a potential commonality between child prodigies and savants genetically leading to the conclusion that child prodigies possess a form of autism but suppress typical signs.

According to “savant” (2002), savant syndrome is someone with extreme skills at one particular area and are also mentally challenged or autistic. Edelson says that out of the one percent of people that are autistic only ten percent of those have savant syndrome. People with the syndrome usually only have a narrow set of incredible abilities such as multiplication problems that no one else can possibly do in their head, knowing what happened on a specific day twenty years ago, or crazy artistic and musical skills. “savant “ (2002) says that there is no exact evidence to explain how savants can do these things but researchers believe that there could be damage to the left side of the brain and that the right side of the brain compensates for the damage. Testosterone is also believed to be involved with the fetal development of the syndrome. This leading to a lot more males than females developing savant

It has been seen that gifted children have different coping mechanisms, as they are likely to face different problems than their peers. This usually means them being overlooked by staff as they are not seen to need the same assistance as other students. It is often found that gifted girls may learn to hide their abilities in order to blend in with other children whereas gifted boys are usually considered immature and are unable to socialise with children their own age. These children usually have different learning methods therefore teaching staff may find it hard to work with their needs. This may lead the child to feel bored in class when the work is not differentiated to their

Jobs change, schedules change, people change, etc. Another skill would be to be as friendly and outgoing as possible, which can pose a struggle for someone with ASD. Communication and social skills can get one far in life. In order to be employable, individuals with ASD need to know how to interact with other people in a socially acceptable manner. They need to know how to greet someone, make eye contact, carry on a conversation, ask for help, answer questions, and even answer a phone call.

In addition, CBT is effective because it has the capacity to treat a wide variety of psychological disorders. Among adults, it has been proven effective in the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), phobias, obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance abuse/dependence, common marital problems and diet disorders. To conduct CBT within older individuals, it is important to assess cognitive capacity, evaluate whether a patient has sufficient memory function and cognitive processing skills. A brief cognitive screen such as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment is effective to assess early problems with executive functioning. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) is another recommended screen for severity of depressive symptoms.

As previously stated, social isolation causes a multitude of mental illnesses. For example, an experiment conducted by the students at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine successfully demonstrates the effects of solitude on mice. The mice were separated from each other and their brains stopped producing vital Myelin cells. These cells protect nerve endings which help the brain properly send electrical impulses. Without the proper amount of

In order to perform these skills he explained that he needs to have good communication skills, especially written. He also said that critical reasoning skills, analytical skills and close reading are important in everything he does. Since he teaches drawings skills to students he also needs to be fluent in several

Mental isolation takes a big part in Lord of the Flies, mainly because the kids are left stranded on an unknown island. Jack desires to be the leader of the group but everyone votes for Ralph instead. Jack then gets extremely frustrated and says,“‘I’m going off by myself. He can catch his own pigs. Anyone who wants to hunt when I do can come too.’ He blundered out of the triangle toward the drop to the white sand” (Golding 183). Now the group is split into two groups which means all things are even more unorganized. As everyone is slowly losing civilization, everything is turning into chaos. This eventually leads to the deaths of some kids. Isolation sometimes results in one to lose their mental ability, unable to even think something all the way through. As writer Thomas Carlyle says, “Isolation may very often be the ‘sum total of wretchedness’” (Bond). Isolation may cause you to go insane and there is nothing you can do about it because it is human nature. Jack loses his mind when he decides to leave the group which is an outcome of his anger. According to Frank McAndrew, unpleasant things such as violence and conflict can arise “when small groups of people experience isolation together” (McAndrew). Golding shows how the boys lose their civility and go lunatic when he says “at once the crowd surged after it, poured down the rock, leapt on to the beast, screamed, struck, bit, tore. There were no words, and no movements but the tearing of teeth and claws” (Golding 219). The boys assumed that Simon was the imaginary beast and viciously killed him. Their mental mindset causes them to act brutal and to not think ahead. Being mentally isolated can trigger how you act and

Darold Treffert, Psychiatrist, chronicles his more than 50 years of working with individuals known as savants. Treffert writes “One of the most striking and consistent things in the many savants I have seen is that they clearly know things they never learned”. Treffert’s belief the knowledge these savants have obtained has always been with them is clearly evidenced as he uses terms like ‘factory installed’, ‘genetic memory’, ‘racial memory’ and ‘ancestral memory’ when attempting to explain the phenomena he has witnessed first-hand. During the course of the article Treffert goes on to cite additional studies and books written by himself as well as his peers verifying the fact that there is no way possible for the individuals to have learned or acquired their respective talents through normal conventions. Savants remind us there is so much about the brain and knowledge that we still have yet to learn and this scares me. Within the article Treffert writes about “acquired savants” and “accidental genius” and further explains at times of severe head trauma or grave illness the reaming functioning parts of the can in fact release the “latent capacity” therein thus creating a new savant. Given the lack of value today’s society seems to place on human life combined with the quest for knowledge, the thought of Dr. Frankenstein smashing poor subjects frontal lobes in an attempt to create a savant does not seem all that farfetched at all and that should scare us all. Regardless, the savant clearly does not meet the guidelines of obtaining knowledge as set forth in Gee’s

Savant is a unique form of autism that has its own special skills, which set Savant apart from all other forms of autism. The most common

Once a person has an idea of what intelligence is and what it means, a final thought one might consider is what influences are responsible for the different types of intellect. Two possible influences are genetics and the environment in which one lives, with genetics being the strongest influence (Santrock, 2009, pg. 302). Most researchers agree that a person’s genetics and environment interact with one another to influence the outcome of that person’s intelligence (Santrock, 2009, pg. 302). Genetic influences should be pretty obvious, so there should be no need to explain it; a person’s environment on the other hand, can involve several factors. An environment can consist of elements such as a person’s school, home, friendships, family relationships, and workplaces. All of these components factor in to influence a person’s intelligence.