Savant skills in autism: Psychometric approaches and parental reports

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Volumn 364, Issue 1522, 2009, Pages 1359-1367

  Howlin, Patricia ^a   Goode, Susan ^b   Hutton, Jane ^a   Rutter, Michael ^a  

^a KING'S COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

^b Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Adults with autism; Autism; Savant skills

Indexed keywords

ADULT; COGNITION; COMPARATIVE STUDY; FEMALE; NERVOUS SYSTEM DISORDER; PSYCHOLOGY; STEREOTYPIC BEHAVIOR;

EID: 66149091441     PISSN: 09628436     EISSN: 14712970     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2008.0328     Document Type: Article

References (40)

1. Asperger, H. 1991 Autistic psychopathy in childhood. In Autism and Asperger syndrome (ed. U. Frith), pp. 37-92. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. (Originalwork published 1944.)
2. Bölte, S. & Poustka, F. 2004 Comparing the profiles ofsavant and non-savant individuals with autistic disorder. Intelligence 32, 121-131. (doi:10.1016/j.intell.2003.11.002)
3. Cohen, J. 1968 Weighted kappa; nominal scale agreementwith provision for scaled disagreement or partial credit. Psychol. Bull. 70, 213-220. (doi:10.1037/h0026256)
4. Down, J. L. 1887 On some of the mental affections of childhood and youth. London, UK: Churchill.
5. Grossman, H. 1983 Classification in mental retardation. Washington, DC: The American Association on Mental Deficiency.
6. Heaton, P. & Wallace, G. 2004 Annotation: the savantsyndrome. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 45, 899-911. (doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2004. t01-1-00284.x)
7. Heavey, L., Pring, L. & Hermelin, B. 1999 A date toremember: the nature of memory in savant calendricalcalculators. Psychol. Med. 2, 145-160. (doi:10.1017/S0033291798007776)
8. Hermelin, B. 2001 Bright splinters of the mind: a personal story of research with autistic savants. London, UK: Kingsley.
9. Hermelin, B. & O'Connor, N. 1986 Idiot savant calendricalcalculators: rules and regularities. Psychol. Med. 16, 885-893.
10. Hermelin, B. & O'Connor, N. 1990 Factors and primes: aspecific numerical ability. Psychol. Med. 20, 163-169.
11. Howlin, P., Davies, M. & Udwin, O. 1998 Cognitive functioning in adults with Williams syndrome. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 39, 183-189. (doi:10.1017/S002196 3097001789)
12. Howlin, P., Goode, S., Hutton, J. & Rutter, M. 2004 Adult outcome for children with autism. J. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 45, 212-229. (doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2004.00215.x)
13. Hutton, J., Goode, S., Murphy, M., Le Couteur, A. & Rutter, M. 2008 New-onset psychiatric disorders in individuals with autism. Autism: Int. J. Res. Pract. 12, 373-390. (doi:10.1177/1362361308091650)
14. Iavarone, A., Patruno, M., Galeone, F., Chieffi, S. & Carlomagno, S. 2007 Brief report: error pattern in an autistic savant calendar calculator. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 37, 775-779. (doi:10.1007/sl0803-006-0190- 2)
15. Joseph, R., Tager-Flusberg, H. & Lord, C. 2002 Cognitive profiles and social-communicative functioning in children with autism spectrum disorder. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 43, 807-822. (doi:10.1111/1469-7610. 00092)
16. Kanner, L. 1971 Follow-up study of eleven autistic children originally reported in 1943. J. Autism Child Schizophr. 1, 119-145. (doi:10.1007/BF01537953)
17. Kuschner, E., Bennetto, L. & Yost, K. 2007 Patterns of nonverbal cognitive functioning in young children with autism spectrum disorders. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 37, 95-807. (doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0209-8)
18. Le Couteur, A., Rutter, M., Lord, C., Rios, P., Robertson, S., Holdgrafer, M. & McLennan, J. 1989 Autism Diagnostic Interview: a semi-structured interview for parents and caregivers of autistic persons. J. Autism Dev. Disord. 19, 363-387. (doi:10.1007/BF02212936)
19. Le Couteur, A., Lord, C. & Rutter, M. 2003 Autism diagnosticinterview-revised. Los Angeles, CA: Western PsychologicalServices.
20. Leiter, R. G. 1980 Leiter international performance scale: instruction manual. Chicago, IL: Stoetling.
21. Levitin, D. J., Cole, K., Chiles, M., Lai, Z., Lincoln, A. & Bellugi, U. 2004 Characterizing the musical phenotype inindividuals with Williams syndrome. Child Neuropsychol. 10, 223-247. (doi:10.1080/ 09297040490909288)
22. Miller, L. 1998 Defining the savant syndrome. J. Dev. Phys. Disabil. 10, 73-85. (doi:10.1023/A:1022813601762)
23. Miller, L. 1999 The savant syndrome: intellectual impairment and exceptional skills. Psychol. Bull. 125, 31-46. (doi:10.1037/0033-2909.125.1.31)
24. Milner, K. et al. 2005 Prader-Willi syndrome: intellectualabilities and behavioural features by genetic subtype. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 46, 1089-1096. (doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2005. 01520.x)
25. O'Connor, N. & Hermelin, B. 1984 Idiot savant calendricalcalculators: maths or memory? Psychol. Med. 14, 801-806.
26. O'Connor, N. & Hermelin, B. 1987 Visual andgraphic abilities of the idiot savant artist. Psychol. Med. 17, 79-90.
27. O'Connor, N. & Hermelin, B. 1988 Annotation: low intelligence and special abilities. J. Child Psychol. Psychiatry 29, 391-396. (doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.1988.tb00732.x)
28. O'Connor, N. & Hermelin, B. 1991 Talents and preoccupations in idiots-savants. Psychol. Med. 21, 959-964.
29. Raven, J. 1976 Standard progressive matrices. London, UK: H. K. Lewis.
30. Rimland, B. 1978 Savant capabilities of autistic children and their cognitive implications. In Cognitive defects in the development of mental illness (ed. G. Serban), pp. 43-65. New York, NY: Bruner-Mazel.
31. Rimland, B. & Fein, D. 1988 Special talents and autisticsavants. In The exceptional brain: neuropsychology of talent and special abilities (eds L. K. Obler & D. Fein), pp. 374-492. New York, NY: Guilford.
32. Smith, S. B. 1983 The great mental calculators. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
33. Southall, G. 1979 Blind Tom: the post Civil War enslavement of a black musical genius. Minneapolis, MN: Challenge Productions.
34. Stutsman, R. 1948 Merrill Palmer scale of mental tests. Los Angeles, CA: Western Psychological Services.
35. Tredgold, A. 1952 Mental deficiency. Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins.
36. Treffert, D. 1989 Extraordinary people: understanding 'Idiot Savants'. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
37. Treffert, D. 2000 Extraordinary people: understanding savant syndrome. New York, NY: Ballantine Books.
38. Wechsler, D. 1974 Wechsler intelligence scale for children-revised. New York, NY: Psychological Corporation.
39. Wechsler, D. 1984 Wechsler adult intelligence scale-revised. New York, NY: Psychological Corporation.
40. Young, R. L. 1995 Savant syndrome: processes underlyingextraordinary abilities. PhD dissertation, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia.