THE SPECIAL ABLITIES OF THE AUTISM

Autism is a disease that is located in the brain with developmental disability thought to have
neurological disease. A person suffering from autism has a major problem in the development and
they prefer to be in their own world which makes it hard for them to communicate and relate with
others (Yahoohealth, 2008). However, people with autism displays an autistic syndrome or some
researcher refer as savant syndrome. The savant syndrome gives an extraordinary talent and
special ability to the autistic people despite their serious mental or physical disabilities. The special
abilities autistic people have are memorizing, calculation, and drawing.
Memorizing is one of the special ability that is most common in autistic people with savant
syndrome. Memory is an important part of the autistic people and the form of memory is regularly
automatic, real and mechanical. The autistic people are able to memorize things easily especially
in specific area of interest. For instance, they can remember everything about everyone's birth
date, even after meeting the person once and not seeing him/her for ten or twenty years. Then,
Treffert (2009), states that the autistic people may have the ability to memorize large amount of
materials such as encyclopedias. They can store a huge list of item in their minds for unlimited
time, and can reiterate them precisely. For example, the most well-known savant with autism is
Kim Peek, who was the inspiration for Raymond from the movie Rainman who is able to display
many abilities associated with autistic savants. He was able to memorize things from the age of 1620 month and has memorized world history, accurately recite historical data from memory and can
recall names of around 12,000 books. Autistic people who are savants syndrome have an
extraordinary ability in memorizing.
Another special ability of the autistic people is calculation. Several autistic people have this
extraordinary skill and this calculation ability is divided into two which are calendar and lightning
calculation. OConnor & Hermelin (1984) indicates the autistic people manifest in calendar
calculating that is relating the capability to discover the day of the week upon which the exact date
falls. Several algorithms exist for determining the day of the week for any given date which would
require either a large adjustment to these algorithms or a slower technique based on generating
possible answers and then working toward the correct date (Mottron, 2006). Furthermore, they also

manifest in lightning calculation where they are able to solve mathematics problem quickly as an
electronic calculator calculate. The autistic people able to mentally add, subtract, multiply and
divide large numbers at lightning speed. According to Myers (1903), the autistic savant uses the
most concrete procedures in calculating without making complex calculations.. Richard Borcherds
is one of the examples of the autistic people who have ability in calculating. He was awarded the
Fields Medal, which for mathematicians is equivalent to the Nobel Prize. He has specialized in
lattices, number theory, group theory, and infinite-dimensional algebras. In short, autistic people
also can do calculation, even better compared to the normal person.
Besides that, an exceptional artistic and drawing ability is possessed by autistic people.
Autism is a kind of syndrome that cannot communicate or interact with others and live in their own
world so they could express their feelings and emotions by drawing toward their precious family
members. According to Sanei and Haghayegh (2011), drawing can also describe happiness,
sadness and dreams of the future and past lives. People with autism can increase their social
interactions by using arts. This has been proven successfully by researchers and professionals. In
other words, people on the autism spectrum benefits by using art to develop positive emotion
among people with autism. As an example, Stephen Wiltshire is a person with autism disorder has
special ability in drawing. Autistic artist, Stephen Wiltshire was the one who created an 18ft
drawing of New York by memory after he spent about 20 minutes in a helicopter gazing at the
panorama. The Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to art was awarded to
Stephen Wiltshire in 2006. Through drawing, autism are able to admire each other skills and also
as way for them to communicate. Thus, art is significant in order to increase the confidence level
among autism.
As discussed above, determining the ability of people with autism is important as they are
able to show talent in a specific area of interest such as rote memory, calculation skills in
mathematics and artistic abilities in exceptional drawing in order to give them the right education.
In addition, the government should provide a school for autistic people to learn and discover their
special abilities in order to make them to be good so that they can improve social interaction,
communication and has superior skills in their ability. Hence, these special ability will be a torch for
people with autism to face the dark challenging world they live in.