Prodigies and Savants: Exceptional Talents and Abilities

1. Intelligence Testing

2. Alfred Binet • French psychologist • Designed a series of tests to measure the mental abilities of school children. • Used test to compute average score for each age level

3. Stanford-Binet Test • Mental Age • Idea that intelligence increase w age • Louis Terman • Stanford Prof • Used Binet system to measure IQ

4. IQ • Intelligence Quotient • Measure of brightness by comparing mental age with physical age • 100 pt center • Mental age ÷ Physical age × 100 = IQ • 6 ÷ 5 × 100 = 120 • All adults given the age of 20

5. Wechsler Intelligence Test • David Wechsler • WAIS – adults • WISC – children (6-16) • WPPSI – preschool (4-6) • Subscales (verbal and performance) combine to form IQ score

6. Extremes in Intelligence • Intellectual Disability • Intellectual Developmental Disorder • Adaptive functioning with four levels of severity • Mild, Moderate, Severe, Profound • Causes • Genetic abnormalities – Downs syndrome • Prenatal exposure – alcohol, drugs, chemicals

7. Prodigy • Person with exceptional talents or powers that does NOT have an intellectual disability

8. Bill Gates – Prodigy • Age 45 became richest man in U.S. • Began writing computer programs in 8th grade • Dropped out of Harvard – created 1st operating system to run a computer • Microsoft, his company operates on 90% of the world’s computers

9. Akrit Jaswal – Prodigy • 15-year-old India native performed first surgery at age seven. At 11, he became youngest student ever admitted to an Indian university. • IQ of 146

10. E. Midori – Prodigy • Began violin at age 3 • By age 10 – a prodigy • Performed professionally (age 10) with NY Philharmonic • Able to memorize & flawlessly perform long complicated pieces of music.

11. Gregg Cox - Prodigy • Speaks 64 languages • Began leaning languages age 5 • Started with Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German & Mandarin • Now learns about 5 per year • Produced Worlds largest language dictionary in 225 languages. 45,600 pages of nearly 5 million entries which cross references each of 225 languages

12. Jake Barnett- Prodigy • Age 2 – diagnosed with autism • Started college at 15 • Video

13. Savant Syndrome • RARE condition marked by island of brilliance in relation to intellectual disability • Intellectually disabled but also display exceptional skill in a limited domain such as music, art, math, or calculating dates. • Obsessive fixations on particular topics & memorization of trivia can also be present

14. Nadia – Autistic Savant • By age 2 Nadia had autism diagnosis • Age 3 ½ she began to draw… draw not scribble without training from memory with skill of a talented adult • Draws differently by putting in random details first & then outline last.

15. Nadia – Age 4 vs. Da Vinci

16. Nadia – Age 4 vs. Typical 9 year old

17. Nadia Age 4 vs. Typical 4 year old

18. Savant Syndrome • Brittany Maier • 16 year old blind, autistic,& mentally disabled musical savant pianist • Memorized over 10,000 pieces including hundreds of originals

19. SAVANT SYNDROME VIDEO CLIP Savant Video Clip

20. SAVANT • Kim Peek • Basis for Rain Man • video

21. Kay and Flo • Twins • Autistic • Savants • Video