A common misconception with autistic people is that they are stupid. That they are slow or unable to learn. It’s actually quite the contrary. While some may register lower in certain areas, they can also excel in certain subjects. If there was a word to use beyond “excel”, that would explain it even better.
I’ve done a lot of reading up on what are called “autistic savants”, not because I hope this for Bella, but because I get asked a lot, “what is Bella really good at.” I can say with a degree of certainty that most of this stems from movies like “Rain Man”. While there is nothing wrong with that, since it does happen, it tends to make people think that ALL autistic people have a streak of genius in them, and when they don’t, there is something wrong with them. Ironic if you think about it. Something wrong because they’re NOT genius. Go figure.
One of the names I mentioned above, Kim Peek, is said to be the inspiration for Dustin Hoffman’s character in the movie “Rain Man”. This is a man who was born with severe mental disabilities. His IQ is well below normal and he could never do simple things like button his own shirt, but amazingly, he’s read over 12 thousand books. He can read two pages in three seconds. The left page with the left eye and the right page with the right eye. He can recite everything he’s ever read, to the page number. Stephen Wiltshire, also known as the human camera, was born autistic. He didn’t learn to talk until the age of nine, but showed a great talent for drawing. He can draw perfect replicas of city landscapes and skylines after only seeing them once. He once drew a 33 foot long panoramic view of Tokyo, after seeing it once during a fleeting helicopter ride. His work is amazing and it's crazy to think that he's drawn these from memory. Ellen Boudreaux, is a blind autistic who has an incredible talent for music. She can remember and play any song she’s ever heard. She once heard the phone tell her what time it was when she was eight years old. Since then, she’s known exactly what time it is, to the second, able to keep a “mental digital clock” in her head.
These are impressive people with impressive talents. Their parents were all told that they needed to be institutionalized. Can you imagine? These people never would have had the chance to showcase and share these amazing talents with the world.
Bella, to me, is already amazing. She does show an affinity for music. She has an amazing ability to match the tone of music she hears. She doesn’t sing, she just vocalizes along. She loves to dance and because of her hyperflexibility, she can do pretty awesome twisty, bendy things. As I said before, she is still considered non-verbal, but she has shown that she can match, or mimic sounds, specifically numbers.
The possibilities are endless really and as her mother, I do hope that she finds something that she loves to do and excels at it. I guess I just wish that people didn’t expect it from her already, I mean, she’s only two. She’s got plenty of time.
A friend we were chatting with a bit ago said something that made sense. It’s like when you lose one sense, and your other senses overcompensate to make up for it. Maybe it’s kind of like that. They lose the ability to do simple tasks, but gain an amazing ability to eclipse the norms of something else. They say that autistic people are “locked in their own heads”, but maybe that’s how they discover that they have these talents in there.
It truly is something to be in awe of. These perplexing talents given to those who some consider inferior. I, being considered “normal” could only wish to have a sliver of some of their talent.
Can you imagine how the world would be if we were all able to tap into that little bit of genius that hides in our heads?
