Are you on the autistic spectrum and have a specific gift, ability or talent?
I often write about the many challenges we face as autistic people trying to make our way in life. But there are also some benefits of having a unique perspective on the world.
I am presently doing some research into abilities displayed by people on the autistic spectrum. I am very interested to find out how common it is for people with autism to have a “special” ability, to perform a task.
For example there are famous artists such as Stephen Wiltshire, that can instantly memorise huge cityscapes by flying over them once in a helicopter. He is then able to draw them with great accuracy. Not only is he a great artist, he also has a remarkable photographic memory.
There are cases of autistic musicians that are able to hear a complex tune just once, before playing it by ear on the piano. A prime example of this is pianist Derek Paravicini who is not only autistic, but blind. Derek has great ability as a pianist, and has an incredible memory for remembering pieces of music .
Daniel Tammet is another highly gifted autistic person that has an incredible memory. Apart from being a best selling author, he has created and run an online language business, and been the subject of many research projects on Savant syndrome.
Daniel has learnt at least 10 different languages including Icelandic, which he learnt in a week for a television documentary. He also has a remarkable memory for numbers.
It seems that unusual powers of memory, empower and enhance the savant type abilities displayed by some autistic people. I personally know autistic people that are able to tell you instantly, which day you were born on from your current birthday.
I also know some autistic people that have mentally assembled huge amounts of information on a given subject, and can recall it, as if reading from a book.
In addition, there are many non savant people with autism who’s talents lie in the fields of science, art or music. Their intense interest in a subject, combined with natural talent, creates a person of great skill and authority in their chosen field.
My particular talents are music and film making. Whilst I would not put myself in the rarefied class of savant, my abilities have provided me with a long career.
I would be very interested to hear about your “special” talent or ability.It could be in anything, from cooking, kart racing, photography, art, knowledge of computers, mathematics or anything else.
Please let me know. It will be great to hear from you
Leave a comment.
Steve
Our son (5) seems to be really interested and talented with circuits and circuit boards. A friend gave them to him, and he was able to start creating them without any instructions or help. Now he has taken a real interest in all things science.
I have autistic child aged 23 Years. He is very talent in Music. He can sing any song (Sinhala) with the Music start to end
accurately. when he singing some time we wonder how he know s the words of the songs. When the music is given by the Organ
he can sing well. He know about 1000 songs. Just like a famous musician He know the song and the music. When he sing he sometimes sing the music from his mouth He cant write and cant read but he sing well using correct words
Hi Damayanthi
I just saw your email from a few weeks ago.
It’s good to use his musical ability help with his communication skills, possibly social skills and confidence building.
Does he perform music in public at all?
Regards
Steve http://www.adultswithautism.org.uk
I actually do not have any “special abilities” I wish I did though. I love music,especially the piano but I have short term and long term memory loss due to a stroke when I was younger. I wish I could be a composer but I can’t even remember the notes to play for the piano.
My strengths are in mathematics and computing. It is getting the work that is the hardest. However once in a job I let my work do the talking. I am good with MS Access, Excel and Visual Basic. I have a Bachelor Science through the Open University in Mathematics and Computing. Having been with the NHS for 10 years I am being made redundant (They have no more use for my autism). They are not taking into account my High Functioning Autism through the redeployment process. It is deeply frustrating. I have learned the Connecting for Health Data Model inside out and I am one of very few people in the country with this knowledge. It is such a waste of my talents and abilities. All my IT jobs have found me including my job with the NHS as I did things which got me noticed and management saw the potential for my skills (usually to exploit and take advantage). Once they get what they want I am just thrown out with the rubbish. I now have to go through this process all over again. I am 10 years older and it will be harder to find other work. However, I never give up I always have hope. It would make a change to have an employer that would provide me with a proper career path rather than take advantage of my self taught skills.
I don’t have any of these savant qualities. If there’s one thing that comes naturally it is my eye for detail. That’s why I’ve most often worked in design and copy editing. I spot errors, typos, inacurracies pretty easily.
Usually I can also muster long sessions of high concentration — if the matter interests me.
Most people see, say, a leaflet or a website, and think it’s ‘good enough’. Me, I’ve spotted the typos, the bad leading, the color errors instantly — and I notice all the fuzzy writing, crooked logic or vague paragraphs as well.
Of course, when it comes to discreetly telling the creator their product makes no sense, that’s when the social skills fail me. It’s not personal but everyone always seems to take it that way.
Hi Nils
That is very interesting actually.
Have you considered working as a proof reader? Checking books or documents before they are published.
Steve
Actually most of my jobs have involved that kind of thing. But like I said, it never seems to last, for various reasons.
I’m waiting for a couple of programs this fall that ought to help me get my bearings and hopefully I can find the strenght and stability to start looking for similar jobs.
Freelance would work, but then we’re in the realm of overseeing that huge project again.
All I need is another break (I always had those somehow) and make sure I can stay focused and keep things on track…
Hi Nils
I have been in similar situations (I think). I’ve had times when I haven’t had the emotional strength to take on any work. I found sometimes that it was more down to depression and anxiety than my autisic symptoms. Once I changed my meds and got better mentally I was able to take on more things work wise.
Steve
Great post!
My “special” talent is also in the film making area. 🙂 I started filming around age 7 and was creating music videos when I was 14 years old. A few years later I started to create 3D graphics and animations and developed an interest for working with a Steadicam / stabilizer. You can see some of my videos on my YouTube channel if interested: http://bit.ly/4iPoGZ
Cameras have always been my special interest and I also collect television / studio cameras. My biggest problem is trying to turn my talents into a career. I’ve had some amazing opportunities, but thanks to being undiagnosed until recently and having severe anxiety problems, I wasn’t able to act upon any of it. Basically I’ve always felt like there was an ongoing battle between my talents and my problems. No success story I’m afraid, but still struggling to create one. 😉
Hi Darren
Thanks for your message. I had a look (and subscribed) at your youtube channel. Really nice work Darren. You are the king of the Steadycam! I like your grading as well. Do you use Magic bullet?
I totally relate this:
“I’ve always felt like there was an ongoing battle between my talents and my problems”
Luckily I have been able to somehow get through the anxiety resulting from my autism.
I can’t deny that it’s hard to work in a professional, pressured environment, when you are struggling with severe anxiety and social difficulties. Sometimes just being around people is a nightmare!
Like you, I am OK doing the work, but dealing with people, understanding instructions and asking for enough money, have always been the problem.
Have you tried Cognitive behavioural therapy? I tried it a while ago and it did help me to understand situations a bit better, and get a slightly higher level of self worth.
One other suggestion is, how about focussing on the animation and graphics/editing as your main direction for the time being. I do this often. It means that I can work alone, in my own space for most of the time. I don’t have to deal with loads of strange people all the time!.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Steve
Thanks Steve for the sub and replying. I’m glad to hear you were able to get through your anxiety problems. Dealing with people, understanding instructions and being able to work in a pressured environment is indeed what has been making things so difficult. I’ve started taking medication to try and reduce sensory sensitivity issues and been getting Cognitive Behavioral Therapy the last couple of months. Both seem to have helped in reducing some of my anxiety problems.
I had troubles leaving the house before and I only went outside when I needed to film something. And only after carefully planning every minute of it! I’ve been using a weekly scoring point system to slowly increase activities that are stressful for me. This has helped me a lot. I now enjoy going outside again to do some cycling. To keep myself motivated I even started filming my bike rides (which I upload to my private channel http://bit.ly/16A0bpe) and trying to find interesting locations to take pictures. Well, at least it’s a start. 🙂
Focusing on animation / editing for now, sounds like a very good suggestion, thank you. I will give this some serious thought! If you don’t mind me asking, how do you get word out to get business going? BTW, would love to see some of your work!
Hi Darren
It’s really good that you are already getting some help with the anxiety. Take it slowly, don’t put to much pressure on yourself, and you will gradually find you can do more things. Life is full of ups and downs, but somehow we always get through.
As far as work goes. I had been in music for most of my career. This led to writing music for tv/radio ads for an advertising agency in London.
About 7 years ago I started to get into video and was asked by the agency to be their video freelancer. This was only because they knew me and trusted in the music work I had done for them.
I don’t do the advertising work any more.
I now do a lot of promotional films for local government boroughs in London.
I just finished a big project for promoting mental health services for young people. Commissioned by the London borough of Richmond upon Thames.
I still have a lot to learn about film making, but I’m getting there!
I have not advertised my video services, I just seem to get lucky, and the rest is word of mouth. As long as you are approaching the work in a professional, reliable manner. And the final film looks good, people will keep hiring you.
I also work 1 day a week as a film tutor for the national autistic society. I definitely feel more comfortable being around other autistic people.
If I had to start my film business from scratch, I’m not sure how I would do it now. I am not good at selling myself. I just kind of fell into this career, I was lucky knowing a couple of influential people that gave me some well paid jobs. I actually don’t know how I did it, it was very uncomfortable!
Steve
🙁 Have always had some very raw talents, but have not ever been able to direct them properly. I can see a crooked shelf, picture, etc, quickly and easily. This has been verified numerous times by placing a level on the object in question and it being just a hair off in the direction I said it was.
Used to be able to draw complex, and tiny pictures (a unicorn for instance), and repeat the same drawing over and over. I would sometimes fill up entire lines on a piece of notebook paper with the same pic.
Hi
It sounds like you could have some skills that you could use in your career or college course etc. Are you at college age or working age?
What are your interests and hobbies?
Steve
I have a lot of interests.
Unfortunately I also have a lot of health problems and they have diminished my abilities to a great degree. I can’t even grasp things the way I used to. (kind of like my brain just doesn’t process information well anymore).
I am looking into the gluten connection though, as it seems to possibly tie in with a lot of my health problems as well.
I am not one to give up easily.
I have a knack for art, and once a teacher thought I was cheating on a drawing book we had to do for a class (primary years of school) so he had me draw one of the pictures as he watched. Haha, he looked pretty astonished when I did it quite easily.
I won a scholarship to an art school one time too (many years ago), lol, but just my luck, I had left town and didn’t have a forwarding address. My relative I had been staying with at the time I entered the drawing informed me of what had happened weeks afterwards.
I’m not one to give up though. I just need to figure out where I fit in this world.
Thanks so much for your blog. I hope more people find it as it is very helpful.
May you (and yours) be blessed a million times over.
Song
Hi Song
Please keep trying to pursue your art, even if it’s as a hobby. As creative people, we gain a lot by creating.
I have been very lucky to have had a long career in music and later in film making. But I also need to be creative to feel better about myself.
Outside of my paid film making work, making videos of nature has become my “therapy”. It really makes me feel good, and connected to the world.
I sometimes think that our mental health difficulties are more of a problem than the autistic symptoms. Although sometimes it’s hard to separate them.
I really do understand about not “processing information” I come up against this problem constantly. I have now told everyone I work with about my autism. And I make sure they tell me things simply and clearly.
One big important thing that may help you is: When I am feeling depressed or anxious, my processing gets much worse. So it may be an idea to speak to your doctor about getting extra support for any problems with anxiety or depression.
If you can start to feel stronger emotionally, a lot of other things will become clearer in your life. This what has worked for me.
My blog is quite new, but I will do my best to write more articles as often as I can.
Best wishes to you.
Steve