Darold Treffert

The ways in which acquired savants show up are usually the same ways that congenital, or non-acquired, savant syndrome shows up. They…

— Darold Treffert

Not only when one does meditation one is getting into a different realm, cognitively, but if you look at the imaging that's…

— Darold Treffert

When I met my first savant in 1962, I was impressed by the abilities in these youngsters who had severe disabilities. They…

— Darold Treffert

I have a fairly strict definition of early infantile autism. That is not to say that people who don't meet that classic…

— Darold Treffert

What happens is most of us are so busy in our lives with our families and our vocation which we should be,…

— Darold Treffert

With respect to why some acquired savants are musical, and some are good at the arts, and some are mathematical, why aren't…

— Darold Treffert

Savant syndrome and autism, I think, are not disorders of brain structure, but they're disorders of brain function.

— Darold Treffert

Savant syndrome, characteristically, consists of left hemisphere dysfunction coupled with right hemisphere emergence, and what you see in the savant are basically…

— Darold Treffert

I think one of the problems with the definition of autism is we keep expanding it. It started as "early infantile autism",…

— Darold Treffert

The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names in research.

— Darold Treffert

We should probably start searching around a little earlier in our lives for what I call parallel activities, because most of us…

— Darold Treffert

Sometimes along the way, when people are actively working, they will start to do a search for their roots and maybe get…

— Darold Treffert

To some extent, we all have quirks or idiosyncrasies, and some geniuses, because of how bright they are and how focused they…

— Darold Treffert

When we come to research, if we want to find out the cause of autism, we're going to have to be much…

— Darold Treffert

When you first try to learn to ride a bike, you work very carefully at keeping your balance, and trying to keep…

— Darold Treffert

We have medicalized a lot of things that I think are not really medical conditions.

— Darold Treffert

Savant syndrome is not a disorder in the same way as autism is a disorder or dementia is a disorder. Savant syndrome…

— Darold Treffert

A savant, by definition, is somebody who has a disability and, along with that disability, has some remarkable ability. Prodigies and geniuses…

— Darold Treffert

Not everyone who has a savant skill I would equate with a genius.

— Darold Treffert

Parents don't particularly care whether it's early infantile autism or whatever label the clinicians have put on it. All they want is…

— Darold Treffert

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

We have to be careful that we don't keep multiplying disorders and diluting them. I think there is a difference. People talk…

— Darold Treffert

We can't use the word normal anymore because it's sort of come to be politically incorrect, because normal implies a classification, and…

— Darold Treffert

The term syndrome generally appears to be a constellation, or collection, of similar traits or behaviors within an individual. So, savants do…

— Darold Treffert

Now I realize, and I acknowledge, that the right brain/left brain distinction is a tremendous oversimplification. We don't come neatly divided into…

— Darold Treffert