The Idiot Savant Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research Papers

The Idiot Savant   Ã‚  Ã‚   An idiot savant is defined as a person who is incredibly adept at one particular skill but is completely incapable in other aspects of life such as learning, reading, writing and decision making. The term idiot savant was applied to people with this disorder in 1887 by Dr. J. Langdon Down. The term idiot savant is basically an oxymoron. "Idiot" means someone who is in a class of people with an IQ less than 25, and "savant" comes from French and literally means "learned one." People can be born idiot savants, or it can be acquired later in life, even as late as adulthood. The major mystery with idiot savants is that they don't learn the knowledge they have, they just mysteriously have it.    Many people who are idiot savants are autistic. Approximately ten percent of people with autistic disorder have some savant skills. Only one percent of people with other forms of mental disability have savant skills. However, since other forms of mental disability are more common than autism, it turns out that fifty percent of idiot savants have au...