An Anthropologist on Mars: Prodigies
An Anthropologist on Mars: Prodigies
Introduction
Sacks (1995), in the book An Anthropologist on Mars, looks at several neurological disorders and how they affect individuals. One of the chapters, Prodigies, looks at the life of Stephen Wiltshire. Stephen is autistic but has excellent artistic skills. A prodigy is an individual, a child below 18 years, who develops skills beyond his age. The chapter begins with a review of a blind Negro named Tom. Tom was blind and uneducated. Other than the blindness, tom could not speak and could hardly walk. However, he had exceptional skills in music. Without any music lessons, he managed to learn how to play different musical instruments. He would make musical notes from virtually any object that he could access. Sacks (1995), points out that Tom has a condition known as autism. Unfortunately, the condition was not identified until 1940. This paper reviews sacks experience with Stephen. An autistic boy who is talented in drawing. Sacks looks through the mental and cognitive abilities that put Stephen ahead of his age mates.
Autism
Autism is a condition that alters the normal functioning of a child. Autism is a child hood disorder. This means that it affects children during their development stages. Parents may not realize that a child has autism until he is 2years old. At the age of 2, an autistic child demonstrates characteristics such as withdrawal from others i.e. lacks social skills. The child is also unable to verbally, or none verbally communicate with those around him. The child might also lack sensory information. This means that he may fail to hear noises and sounds around him. Overall, an autistic child fails to overcome the developmental milestones associated with growth. For example, at the age of 2, the child should be able to utter comprehensive words.
Sacks points out that Autism is a condition that bewildered societies. Since cultures were uninformed on the condition, some associated it with mythical aspects as well as witchcraft. Scholars such as Kanner and Aspergers pointed out that autism resulted to mental aloneness in the patients. This meant that the child locks out everything from the outside world. More specifically, the autistic child locks out people around him. These sentiments explain why an autistic child could not speak, was not responsive to noise etc. However, the scholars, point out that the autistic child may enjoy outside objects (Baker, & Welkowitz, 2005). This explains Tom’s desire for music and skillfulness in musical instruments. Kanner also points out on the autistic child’s desire for sameness. An autistic child drawn to music may wholly be interested in only music.
Autism and Unique Talents
Approximately 10% of individuals with autism portray unique skills while still young. This is what researchers refer to as savant skills. Savant skills are found in people with varying degrees of intellectual disabilities. Individual that are normal and without any form disability can also have savant skills. Savant abilities includes abilities such as doing mathematical calculations in seconds, have extra ordinary memory, having artist abilities etc. autistic individuals with savant abilities are known to have a high level of concentration (Bumiller, 2008). Their ability to concentrate for long durations ensures that they are able to focus on their unique areas of interest.
If an autistic individual is interested in music. He will devote his concentration to music and replay the notes and tunes heard. If the patient is interested in the art such as Stephen, he will keenly observe objects around him. Later he would recollect the image seen and draw it almost perfectly.
Savant skills are common in autistic individual; there are two main categories of skills that a savant autistic person can possess. The first is the splinter skills, which is the most common form of savant abilities. An individual appears to be obsesses with activities such as mathematical calculations. The individual can respond to mathematical questions with ease (Bertoglio, & Hendren, 2009). The second category is the talented skills which involve an autistic individual having some form of extraordinary skill. The skill is said to be extra ordinary because few normal individual can do it without some degree of training. Among the skills that autistic individual can adopt include music and artwork.
Sacks (1995), introduces the ideas of singular talents. This is when an autistic child acquires a complex skill exceptionally fast. Approximately 10 of autistic children have singular talents. An autistic child may demonstrate talent in painting drawing or music. This is regardless of not receiving any unique lessons in these fields. Autistic children with savant abilities are said to have savant syndrome. Savant syndrome is a neurological disorder that involves autistic individual demonstrating a high level of capabilities (Sacks, 1995). An individual with savant syndrome has outstanding memory which they use in art. Unfortunately, since the individuals are autistic, they are unable to comprehend how to put the skill they possess into use.
The Case of Stephen
The author, talks of one of his patients, Stephen Wiltshire. Wiltshire is a skilled artist. He focuses on drawings of notable landmarks in London. This information may not be unique in the ordinary world. However, Stephen is unique because he is autistic and 13 years old. From a tender age, Stephen showed savant abilities. While growing up, Stephen demonstrated autistic characteristics such as delayed motor skills. He had difficulty in walking and sitting. At 2-3 years, he became socially withdrawn and would scream if approached by his peers. Stephen also avoided eye contact with anyone. These characteristics are that of a child with autism.
Kranner and Aspergers state that an autistic child locks himself from the ordinary world. It is as though he can only exist in his own world; a world devoid of human interactions. At the age of four, Stephen was diagnosed with infantile autism. He was irrational, frustrated and always angered by failure. Infantile autism is a developmental disorder that is characterized by abnormal emotional, social and linguistic development. An individual with infantilism has an abnormal way of interacting with people, objects and different situations that he may encounter. Stephen viewed the people around him as objects that he had no interest in (Sacks, 1995). Savant skills in Stephen began to be noticed from the age of five. He began to take an interest in shadows, shapes, angles and pictures. He began to scribble and draw the images that fascinated him. Stephen acquired the singular talent of drawing buildings at seven years old.
Patients of autism should not be confined to live a life of disability and handicap. Some children with disabilities have unique skills. It is these unique skills that should be nurtured. Skills such as drawing, as Stephen has, must be nurtured. These skills bring out the positive aspect of autism. A child may be linguistically challenged but is skilled in drawing. Like in the case of Stephen, he demonstrates autistic cognitive abilities. Though he may not comprehend what he is doing, he manages to draw recognizable buildings of London. Peculiarities of children with autism should be tolerated.
In the case of Stephen he would not concentrate and settle in class. He would sprint from one room to the next looking at the drawing on walls. Later, he would scribble the drawings he saw on paper. Drawing is one of the most visible exceptional talents that children with autism can demonstrate. Scholars state that drawing among individual with autism is a form of expression (Mirenda, & Iacono, 2008). The individual wants to express his experiences. This is evident in the case of Stephen. After a tour around London, he would sit and draw the buildings he saw.
Drawing is an also a form of thinking for the autistic child. Autistic children have limited cognitive abilities. They, therefore, rely on drawing to put across their thoughts. Perception in autistic children is not filtered by cognition. It is also no influenced by the conceptual knowledge that normal children have when looking at a scenery. Instead, it relies on memory. An autistic child draws what is in his memory. For instance, when an autistic child is asked to draw a house, he will not draw any hypothetical house. He will draw a house he recalls. This will be detailed to the extent that it resembles the specific house he recalls.
Autism and Cognitive Structure
Sacks experience with Stephen led to the realization that autistic children also have a cognitive structure. Autistic children with savant abilities were believed to possess their talents due to their sharp memory. Stephen, just like his other autistic patient, martin, could understand what he was drawing. Sacks tested Stephen’s cognitive abilities in two occasions. He showed Stephen his house for the first time. Stephen drew what he saw. Two years later at a different location he asked him to draw his house. Stephen managed to draw the house albeit a few errors (Happe, & Vital, 2009).
Patients such as martin, according to Sacks, understood how music went together and how variations in music could be made. Such complex abilities were not a sign of memory and recollection but an implicit understand of music. Sacks concludes that autistic children with savant abilities have a unique form of intelligence. The intelligence of the autistic children works within the domain of the limited cognitive abilities (Sacks, 1995). Patients such as Stephen have savant visual talent.
Researchers such as Gardner state that autistic individual with visual talents were more efficient in artistic work that healthy normal individuals (Erickson, & Charness, 1994). The artistic autistic patients have a specific cognitive ability. He sees beyond the basic picture. An artistic autistic patient looks at the essential features of art i.e. the design, the scene. It is this keen and analytic aspect that the autistic individual utilize to make exceptional artistic drawings.
Savant gifts should be viewed as unique talents that children with autism possess. The stereotypical society has the notion that autism children are abnormal and disabled. However, the society should change this perception and accept that autistics children with savant talents are unique. Their cognitive and development capabilities may be different from that of the normal child. However, this should not be a basis for handling these children differently (Sacks, 1995). From the start, savant talents are fully developed. A child such as Stephen could draw none childlike drawings at the age of seven. Children, whether normal or with conditions such as autism can have unique skills. Not all children with prodigious skills are autistic. Similarly, not all autistic children have prodigious and savant skills.
Sacks penetrates into the world of autism and demonstrate it as simply as an alternative view of reality. Man already has a preconceived notion of how the normal world should be. Children are born, young and helpless. They later grow as they gradually acquire various skills. In the world of autism, children can acquire adult skills such as drawing when still quite young. According to Robertson, (2010) the society should cease to have a deficit focused view of autistic people. The society has the view that autistic people are ill and require to be fixed so as to fit in the society. Individuals that are autistic are viewed as sick and not able to fit in the society while the normal ones are neurologically termed as fit and healthy.
Societies should adopt a neurodiversity approach with regards to their functioning in the society. From a neurodiversity perspective, autistic people are individual who possess a blend of cognitive strengths and weaknesses in areas such as language and communication, goal orientation and motor skill execution. The strengths and weakness may vary depending on the severity of the autism (Robertson, 2010). However, similarities such as detailed thinking, expansive memory and ability to analyze complex patterns are similar in autistic children. In most instances, difficulties experienced by autistic individuals are contextual.
Artists state that creativity involves being original by looking at things from the realm of imagination. This trait is absent to autistic children such as Stephen. Stephen draws without any emotional feelings and connections. Autistic artists such as Stephen are able to capture sites as raw as they memorized them.
Conclusion
Oliver sacks book An Anthropologist on Mars focuses on seven tales that deal with defects, disorders and diseases. On the tale of prodigies, Sacks looks at children with autism. Autistic children are sometimes born with exceptional skills that go beyond the understanding of man. An autistic child may possess talent that another normal child may never portray unless through training. Stephen Wiltshire is an exceptional artist born with autism. At the age of seven, he begun to draw non childlike drawing. Sacks analyzes Stephen and concludes that autistic children utilize savant skills to give their own impression and perception of what goes around them. Sacks views savant skills to be more powerful as they have more autonomy. An autistic individual with savant skills does not have to concentrate on a task. Like Stephen, he can listen to music and work in a disruptive environment without a problem. For a normal child, working in a noisy and disruptive environment interferes with the thinking process. Sacks points out that savant talents are not attached to the individual. This is in sharp contrast of the normal talents as they are tied to the individual. Autistic children such as Stephen construct the world in a different way. Stephen may appear to lack the symbolic aspect of art; however, he is skilled in concrete representations.
Work Cited
Baker, L. J., & Welkowitz, L. A. (2005). Aspergers syndrome: Intervening in schools, clinics, and communities. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Bertoglio, K. & Hendren, L. (2009). New development in autism. Psychiatric clinic of North America. Col. 32; 1-14
Bumiller, K. (2008). Quirky citizens: Autism, gender, and reimagining disability. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 33, 967-991.
Erickson, K. & Charness, N. (1994). Expert performance: structure and acquisition. American psychological association. Vol. 49(8); 725-747
Happe, F. & Vital, P. (2009). What aspects of autism predispose to talent? Philosophical transactions of the royal society. Vol. 364; 1369-1375
Mirenda, P. & Iacono, T. (2008). Autism spectrum disorders and AAC. Baltimore, Maryland: Brookes Publishing.
Robertson, S. (2010). Neurodiversity, quality of life and autistic adults. Disability studies quarterly. Vol. 30(1)
Sacks, O. (1995). An Anthropologist on Mars New York: Vintage Books
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