为自己身为自闭症而自豪的数理神童

binfeng2000

今天cbs"60分钟"节目播出的一个主题是讲这个美国13岁的大学二年级学生的故事.有惊人的记忆力,和数学逻辑能力,但是很小的时候是被诊断为自闭症,父母亲发现孩子在做自己喜欢的事情时,几乎所有的自闭症症状全部消失了,同时发现了孩子的数学天才,小学五年级开始夜里上大学课程,同时把从小学到高中的12年课程在一年里考完.现在作为大学二年级的学生,还是名列前茅的.从电视上看,看不出有任何语言,行为,社交上还有自闭症的迹象,但是孩子的父亲说,真要仔细地观察,还是能发现痕迹,而对孩子来说,知道自己是自闭症对他来讲非常有益,因为这样他就知道为什么会和人家不一样,为什么会对数学物理那么地热爱.


January 15, 2012 7:11 PM PrintText
Jake: Math prodigy proud of his autism


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57358845/jake-math-prodigy-proud-of-his-autism/?tag=contentMain;contentBody

binfeng2000

No one could have predicted that Jake would even make it to college. Just before his second birthday he began to regress, stopped speaking and making eye contact. After consulting with several doctors the diagnosis was autism.


Michael Barnett: We went through speech therapy, physical therapy, developmental therapy, occupational therapy. Therapists came to the home.


Kristine Barnett: He was going further and further from our world into a world of his own. And I really was just baffled at how we were going to get him back out of that world.


Safer: And how did you get him, back out of that world?


Kristine Barnett: We realized that Jacob was not happy unless he was doing something he loved.


Which even as a three-year-old was math and science. His parents say the more he focused on the subjects he loved the more he began to communicate.


Kristine Barnett: You could just see him just relax. You could just see him feel like, "Thank goodness we're not working on something that I can't do today.


Safer: And how long did it take for him to, as you say, come back?


Michael Barnett: By the time he was kindergarten age; five, six. He was still behind as far as speaking with others and socializing with others, but he was also light years ahead of everybody else. He was coming home asking us, "When am I gonna learn something at school today? I want to learn algebra."


It was trying to keep Jake challenged that led to a kind of double life. Elementary school by day and sitting in on college courses in the evening. By fifth grade, he dropped out of public school and just to demonstrate that he was ready for college, he taught himself all of high school math in just two weeks. He was 10 years old.


Kristine Barnett: That was the most determined thing I've ever seen anybody do. He had to sit in a calculus class to prove to the university that he could sit still. And Jacob was like, "I'm gonna participate in that class discussion. So if I need to learn algebra one, algebra two, geometry, trig, that's what I'm gonna do." And he took a stack of books, and he sat down, and he just--


Michael Barnett: Went and taught himself. All of it in two weeks.


Not only that, he finished the entire state of Indiana curriculum for grades 6-12 in a little over a year.


The Barnetts, who have started a center for autistic kids called Jacob's Place, say that many of Jake's symptoms of autism have disappeared.


Michael Barnett: There are certain traits that are still there. And if you really, really knew what you were lookin' for, you could dig 'em out. But otherwise, you know, that-- I got--ten-year-old kid at that point in time that just happens to be doing next level work and no one knew anything different

Safer: Your parents told us that you're very proud of your autism.


Jake Barnett: That, I believe, is the reason why I am in college and I am so successful. It is the rise as to my love for math and science and astronomy. And it's the reason why I care. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten this far.


Joanne Ruthsatz, a psychology professor at Ohio State has been studying child prodigies for the last 13 years. She believes there's a link between autism and prodigies.


Joanne Ruthsatz: We know that child prodigies are having autistic relatives at a very high clip and some of them have autism themselves.


She believes that what sets a prodigy with autism apart from other children with the condition is the prodigy's genes have been modified so that the genius emerges without many of the severe disabilities associated with autism.


Joanne Ruthsatz: In the general population of autism, 10 percent will have an autistic savant skill where they're exceptional at something. And they've only got that piece displaying itself.


She says for prodigies - be it in math, music or art - the key to the extraordinary talent is extraordinary memory.


Joanne Ruthsatz: They all share this incredible memory. Each and every one of them.


Safer: In Jake's case, he's 13 years old, what's remarkable is-- not just this memory, but his vocabulary is so adult.


Joanne Ruthsatz: Of course they speak like adults. They've picked up so much information along the way so early in their life, and continue to do so.


Ruthsatz says a talent like Jake's is about one in ten million.