Like mentioned in various articles I’ve made, people with autism are known to have impairments in social interaction & communication, & restricted & repetitive behaviors & interests, and also have difficulties in recognizing & representing their mental state. In addition, they also have difficulties in planning ahead, shifting from old patterns & generate new responses to adapt to demands, which limit their adaptation & independence.
Despite these core disadvantages, they also have talents that most neurotypical/non-autistic people don’t necessarily have. People within this spectrum tend to free up their mental & time resources used to track & remember social contents, which contribute to the development of their talents, hence the stereotype of autistic people of being eccentric without the understanding of his/her surroundings.
They also don’t care of what others think about what’s cool/not, which makes them more able to think of their own thoughts than neurotypicals would, which leads to them having a unique point of view of the world. The difficulties in representing their mental state also leads to their intense engagement with a task/process & makes entering reinforcing & rewarding activities easier, which fosters their skill development. People with ASD also see the world in details rather than seeing it in a big picture, which is the source of their talent & restrictive & repetitive behaviors.
Some people in this spectrum have savant skills, in which he/she has special abilities in music, art, math & mechanical domains, as well as having strong memorization skills. Savants with ASD have amazing skills within 1 or more general ability domains such as math, art, music, spatial & mechanical abilities, along with having staggering skills & remarkable memory especially if it’s within his/her interests.
These special abilities are more common in people with ASD than in other groups, and people with these abilities/talents known to exhibit more autistic traits such as attention to detail shich forms the basis for musical & artistic talents for people within this spectrum, as well as rigid & repetitive interests & abilities. To treat them, their skills should be developed & used as means of creating social interaction & communication.
Music wise, people with autism tend to perform better on tests of memory for pitch, in which they often have absolute pitch that causes great musical memory & performance. They’re also known to have strong attention to detail in which some of them are able to break drawings into parts that help achieve realistic-looking drawings, in expense of having difficulties with social skills & multitasking.
Compared to neurotypicals, people in this spectrum has different neural pathways to accomplish a particular tasks, which makes them more active in perception, especially when it comes to knowledge & other forms of expertise. The strengths & abilities of people with autism include hyperlexia in which he/she learns to read at a very early age, memorize & learn information quickly, think & learn in a visual way, logical thinking ability, expertise in technical & logical subjects such as science, engineering & math, ability to remember facts for a long period of time, precision & attention to detail, honesty & reliability, dependability when it comes to schedules & routines, excellent sense of direction, punctuality, strong adherence to rules, ability to focus for a long period of time when motivated, drive for perfection & order, and capability for alternative problem solving.
Continuous/lifelong learning of their skills, talents & abilities is important for everyone, including people with autism, because it leads to better appreciation of their uniqueness. In order to do that, they need motivation & determination to make the experience more rewarding.
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