The Signs of a Savant

The Signs of a Savant
Author: Neil Smith
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2010-12-02
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1139495011

Every once in a while nature gives us insight into the human condition by providing us with a unique case whose special properties illuminate the species as a whole. Christopher is such an example. Despite disabilities which mean that everyday tasks are burdensome chores, Christopher is a linguistic wonder who can read, write, speak, understand and translate more than twenty languages. On some tests he shows a severely low IQ, hinting at ineducability, yet his English language ability indicates an IQ in excess of 120 (a level more than sufficient to enter university). Christopher is a savant, someone with an island of startling talent in a sea of inability. This book documents his learning of British Sign Language, casting light on the modularity of cognition, the modality neutrality of the language faculty, the structure of memory, the grammar of signed language and the nature of the human mind.

Islands of Genius

Islands of Genius
Author: Darold A. Treffert
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Total Pages: 330
Release: 2011-10-12
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1849058733

In this fascinating book, Dr. Treffert looks at what we know about savant syndrome, and at new discoveries that raise interesting questions about the hidden brain potential within us all. He looks both at how savant skills can be nurtured, and how they can help the person who has them, particularly if that person is on the autism spectrum.

Aspergirls

Aspergirls
Author: Rudy Simone
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2010
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1849058261

Subject: Girls with Asperger's Syndrome are less frequently diagnosed than boys, & even once symptoms have been recognized, help is often not readily available. The image of coping well presented by AS females can often mask difficulties, deficits, challenges, & loneliness.

Autism and Talent

Autism and Talent
Author: Francesca Happé
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2010-03-18
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0199560145

"Originating from a theme issue first published in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences."

The Art of Autism

The Art of Autism
Author: Debra Hosseini
Publisher:
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2012-03-21
Genre: Art and mental illness
ISBN: 9780983983408

Anything But Typical

Anything But Typical
Author: Nora Raleigh Baskin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2010-03-09
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1416995005

Jason, a twelve-year-old autistic boy who wants to become a writer, relates what his life is like as he tries to make sense of his world.

The Real Rain Man, Kim Peek

The Real Rain Man, Kim Peek
Author: Kim Peek
Publisher: Harkness Publishing Consultants
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1997-04
Genre: Savants (Savant syndrome)
ISBN: 9780965116305

A father's inspiring account of Kim Peek, made famous by Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman.

Blackstock's Collections

Blackstock's Collections
Author: Gregory L. Blackstock
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Total Pages: 158
Release: 2006-08-03
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9781568985794

Modern life is an ever-accelerating barrage of people, buildings, vehicles, creatures, and things. How much can a curious mind take in? And what can it do with all the data? Gregory L. Blackstock, a retired Seattle pot washer, draws order out of all the chaos with a pencil, a black marker, and some crayons. Blackstock is autistic and an artistic savant. He creates visual lists of everything from wasps to hats to emergency vehicles to noisemakers. In the spirit of the Outsider art of Henry Darger and Howard Finster, Blackstock makes art that is stirring in its profusion and detail and inspiring in its simple beauty. He has never received formal artistic training, yet his renderings clearly and beguilingly show subtle differences and similaritiesenabling the viewer to see, for example, the distinctive features of a dolly varden, a Pacific Coast steelhead cutthroat, and fourteen other types of trout. Each collection is lovingly captioned in Blackstock's unique hand with texts that reflect facts from his research as well as his passions and preferences. Blackstock's Collections contains over 100 extraordinary examples of his splendidly original taxonomy, offering a unique look inside the mind of a man making sense of life through art. Monsters of the Deep Major Forestry Pests The Great Cabbage Family The Spatulas The World War II U.S. Bombers The Buoys King Sized Jails Monsters of the Past Classical Clowns Great Italian Roosters Our State Lighthouses The Irish Joys

An Anthropologist on Mars

An Anthropologist on Mars
Author: Oliver Sacks
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2012-11-14
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0345805887

From the bestselling author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat • Fascinating portraits of neurological disorder in which men, women, and one extraordinary child emerge as brilliantly adaptive personalities, whose conditions have not so much debilitated them as ushered them into another reality. Here are seven detailed narratives of neurological patients, including a surgeon consumed by the compulsive tics of Tourette's syndrome unless he is operating; an artist who loses all sense of color in a car accident, but finds a new sensibility and creative power in black and white; and an autistic professor who cannot decipher the simplest social exchange between humans, but has built a career out of her intuitive understanding of animal behavior. Sacks combines the well honed mind of an academician with the verve of a true storyteller.