When I met my first savant in 1962, I was impressed by the abilities in these youngsters who had severe disabilities. They… — Darold Treffert Copy Share Image
Savant syndrome is not a disorder in the same way as autism is a disorder or dementia is a disorder. Savant syndrome… — Darold Treffert Copy Share Image
A savant, by definition, is somebody who has a disability and, along with that disability, has some remarkable ability. Prodigies and geniuses… — Darold Treffert Copy Share Image
There is such a thing as genius, and these are people who do not have a formal disability, DSM-IV-type. They may have… — Darold Treffert Copy Share Image
The term syndrome generally appears to be a constellation, or collection, of similar traits or behaviors within an individual. So, savants do… — Darold Treffert Copy Share Image
There are some cases that have come to my attention where there's been a head injury, or getting struck by lightning and… — Darold Treffert Copy Share Image
The ways in which acquired savants show up are usually the same ways that congenital, or non-acquired, savant syndrome shows up. They tend to… — Darold Treffert Copy Share
Not only when one does meditation one is getting into a different realm, cognitively, but if you look at the imaging that's done on… — Darold Treffert Copy Share
When I met my first savant in 1962, I was impressed by the abilities in these youngsters who had severe disabilities. They appeared to… — Darold Treffert Copy Share
I have a fairly strict definition of early infantile autism. That is not to say that people who don't meet that classic description don't… — Darold Treffert Copy Share
What happens is most of us are so busy in our lives with our families and our vocation which we should be, but we… — Darold Treffert Copy Share
With respect to why some acquired savants are musical, and some are good at the arts, and some are mathematical, why aren't they all… — Darold Treffert Copy Share
Savant syndrome and autism, I think, are not disorders of brain structure, but they're disorders of brain function. — Darold Treffert Copy Share
Savant syndrome, characteristically, consists of left hemisphere dysfunction coupled with right hemisphere emergence, and what you see in the savant are basically right brain… — Darold Treffert Copy Share
I think one of the problems with the definition of autism is we keep expanding it. It started as "early infantile autism", and then… — Darold Treffert Copy Share
The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names in research. — Darold Treffert Copy Share
We should probably start searching around a little earlier in our lives for what I call parallel activities, because most of us get entrenched… — Darold Treffert Copy Share
Sometimes along the way, when people are actively working, they will start to do a search for their roots and maybe get really interested… — Darold Treffert Copy Share
To some extent, we all have quirks or idiosyncrasies, and some geniuses, because of how bright they are and how focused they are, may… — Darold Treffert Copy Share
When we come to research, if we want to find out the cause of autism, we're going to have to be much more specific,… — Darold Treffert Copy Share
When you first try to learn to ride a bike, you work very carefully at keeping your balance, and trying to keep one pedal… — Darold Treffert Copy Share
