THE GREATNESS OF AUTISM
LEARN FROM THE TRUE EXPERTS - THOSE WITH AUTISM
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DANIEL TAMMET
- Daniel is a savant with a super-human ability for math. He can calculate complex sums in his head faster than many of us can do on a calculator. He has a talent for languages, learning Icelandic in a week. He has a prodigious memory and was able to recite the number pi up to the 22,514th digit. Despite this, his ability to think abstractly and communicate with others is impaired. Daniel is the subject of the movie Brainman, has been featured on CNN, 60 Minutes and much more.
- Daniel's Interview
- You are known as "Brain Man" and a prodigious savant. Can you tell us about some of the abilities you have?
- I visualize numbers as shapes, textures and colors. Manipulating these shapes in my head I can perform complex calculations. I also visualize words in colors and textures. As an example, the word "word" is blue. I have a large vocabulary. I write for a living and also compose poetry. I also enjoy learning foreign languages.
- Can you explain how you visualize numbers in your mind and which numbers you find appealing?
- Can you tell us about some of the extraordinary calculations you're
able to perform in your head?
One is bright white, 9 is large and deep blue, 37 is lumpy like oatmeal while 89 is like falling snow. 3 is round and so are multiples of 3, such as 6 and 9. Eleven is beautiful and soothing. My favorite number is 4 because it is shy and reminds me of myself. In my memoir 'Born On A Blue Day' I give various examples of calculations I do in my head - from multiplying a sum like 53 times 131 (to get 6,943) to dividing 13 by 97 to almost hundred decimal places.
- You are extraordinarily talented in languages. How many do you speak? Can you tell us how you are able to learn languages so effortlessly?
- I speak English, French, German, Spanish, Lithuanian, Finnish, Romanian, Welsh, Esperanto and Icelandic. English is my native language. Finnish was the first foreign language I learned (around age 10) from a neighbor who came from there. I learned Welsh after visiting the country a few times. learned Icelandic in one week for a documentary about my life.
Learning another language is a natural process for me because I focus on the grammatical patterns within each language and relationships between the words, rather than working from textbook rules or verb tables.
- At what age did your mother realize you weren't like your peers? What was different about you?
- My mother realized from the time that I was very young that I was unlike other children. I cried constantly as a baby, then became quiet, stiff and aloof as a toddler. As a young child at school I didn't mix with the other children and had strange behaviors, such as hand flapping and walking in circles.
- How old were you when you realized you were different to everyone else? What made you aware of this?
- I realized how different I was from my peers around age 9. I realized that I was lonely - I had never experienced this emotion before - and wanted to make friends, but felt strange and awkward and baffled by the social world around me.
- Were you interested in your peers as a child? What age did you start making friends?
- My first friend was an Iranian boy called Babak, who came to my school when I was 10. He was intelligent and shared my love of numbers and words and we enjoyed playing scrabble together.
- Did you ever have a problem with eye contact? If so, how did you teach yourself to overcome this?
- Yes I did as a very young child. I remember finding it uncomfortable to look someone directly in the eye and having to force myself to do so. With practice it became less uncomfortable and more natural for me to do.
- Did you ever engage in self stimulatory behavior such as hand flapping? If so, did this lessen with age and how did you deal with this in public?
- Yes, I had self stimulatory behavior such as hand flapping and clapping, as well as pulling at my lips. These did lessen with age. I remember being teased by my peers for these behaviors and I became increasingly self-conscious about them. They gradually disappeared around the age of 10 or 11.
- Do you have any sensory challenges? If so, can you describe what some of these are and how they affect you?
- I don't like too much noise, which can be unsettling for me. Certain noises - such as manual tooth brushing?- are especially uncomfortable for me, so I use an electric toothbrush which makes a gentle buzzing noise instead.
- Do you have specific routines you like to keep and what coping strategies do you use when things change unexpectedly?
- I do have certain routines which I try to keep, such as eating oatmeal for breakfast every day and drinking tea at specific times throughout the day. When things change unexpectedly I can feel flustered and uncomfortable. One strategy I use is to count to myself - a repetitive action that I find comforting.
- You are known for your super human ability for math. An absolute genius that can calculate complex sums in your head faster than many of us can do on a calculator. How about abstract math? Is this easy for you and if not, how did you cope in school?
- Math is a huge subject. There are certain aspects that I enjoy from arithmetic to number sequences and probability. I struggle with abstract concepts such as algebra. At school, I often changed the letters in algebraic problems
into numbers until I arrived at the solution.
- Do you have any accomplishments you'd like to mention? (Such as education, work achievements, personal accomplishments)
- On March 14th 2004, I recited the mathematical constant Pi (3.141...) from memory to 22,514 decimal places - a European record. It took over 5 hours to recite from start to end. The event raised thousands of dollars for the UK's national epilepsy charity (like many people on the autistic spectrum I suffered from epileptic seizures as a young child, which fortunately I subsequently outgrew).
My 2006 memoir 'Born On A Blue Day' was a New York Times bestseller and has been published in 19 languages. I have finished my second book 'Embracing the Wide Sky - a Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind on the science and philosophy of the human mind - which is due to appear in the UK and US in January 2009. I will shortly write my third book 'Fragments of Heaven' about faith, love and what it means to be human.
In terms of personal accomplishments I know what it is to fall in love and to have a relationship with another person. I am lucky to have many friends and to be close to my family. I have traveled widely, both in Europe and the US and have met and spoken with people from many cultures, languages and personal backgrounds from whom I have learned many things.
- If you could change one thing about neurotypicals, what would it be?
- The perception that autistic people are incapable of creative and imaginative thought or considerable achievement. There are many autistic people besides myself who demonstrate the falsity of this idea, from the artist Stephen Wiltshire to the teenage jazz musician Matt Savage.
- If you could advise parents about one thing, what would it be?
- Encourage your children to hold on to their dreams, because they are the things that shape each person's future.
- If you could advise teachers about one thing, what would it be?
- Autistic students are often excellent students but need encouragement and reassurance if they are to fulfill their potential.
- Is there anything else you would like to add?
- As a young child I wanted so much to fit in with the other children. I would have given anything to lose the things that made me different and be like everyone else. Now I'm happy just the way I am. The challenge of each person's life - autistic or not - is to live their uniqueness. It is the only way I believe we can ever be truly happy.
- IF YOU HAVE ENJOYED READING DANIEL'S INTERVIEW, PLEASE LET HIM KNOW!