Link between child prodigies and autism?

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There is a possible link between child prodigies' special skills and autistic youngsters, suggests a study published in the journal Intelligence. Of the eight prodigies tested, three had a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders. As a group, the prodigies also tended to have slightly elevated scores for autistic traits when compared to a control group.

In addition, half of the prodigies had a family member or a first- or second-degree relative with an autism diagnosis. The fact that half of the families and three of the prodigies themselves were affected by autism is surprising because autism occurs in only one of 120 individuals, points out psychologist Joanne Ruthsatz, lead author of the study.

"Our findings suggest child prodigies have traits in common with autistic children, but something is preventing them from displaying the deficits we associate with the disorder."

The study also found that, while child prodigies had elevated general intelligence scores, where they really excelled was in working memory--all of them scored above the 99th percentile on this trait.

Autism is a developmental disability characterized by problems with communicating and socializing and a strong resistance to change. People with Asperger's are more likely than those with autism to have normal intelligence, but tend to have difficulties with social interaction. The prodigies did score higher than the control group and the Asperger's group on one subsection of the autism assessment: attention to detail.

"These prodigies have an absolutely amazing memory for detail;' relates Ruthsatz. "They don't miss anything, which certainly helps them achieve the successes they have."

Ruthsatz indicates that it was not the three prodigies who were diagnosed with autism who were driving this particular finding. In fact, the three autistic prodigies scored an average of eight on attention to detail, compared to 8.5 for the entire group of prodigies.

On the intelligence test, the prodigies scored in the...