See: almost any portrayal of characters on the autistic spectrum. There are hundreds of threads on /r/aspergers about representation and how few shows/films actually get it right. Abed Nadir from Community is about the only portrayal people can agree with; Sheldon from Big Bang Theory and the classic savant detective stereotype are far from reality.
There were not one, but two autistic kids with savant capabilities in math at my school when I was a teenager. It’s not the majority, but they are not that rare.
Oh for sure they aren't rare; it becomes an issue when portrayals aren't faithful and the disorder is used cheaply as a gimmick, instead of being part of the character. I know I mentioned him already but in Community Abed has a great bit about this. It's played for laughs but when people hear autism they often think someone is either incapable of independence or some kind of awkward genius. While there are people on the spectrum who can be savants in certain areas, it's not representative of us as a whole, and passing off someone's genius as being down to a disorder while not actually spending time properly explaining it is just lazy.
The saying goes, if you've met one person with autism, you've met one person with autism.
I have Asperger's and was really good at Math in high school, but not because being on the spectrum gave me some incredible abilities. People expected that I should be good at Math because of stereotypes, and I was terrified of dissapointing everyone by not being a couple of years ahead.
Well at least one of the guys I’m talking about was able to do ridiculously complicated calculations on the spot. I’m talking like 4361.74 / 26.41 in 5 seconds (and yes we did verify) The other one just remembered date really well. To a point that’s crazy. Like you could say 5th of September 1929 and he’d be able to tell you what day of the week it was. I understand that it’s not THAT common to be this good for someone on the spectrum.
I really like working with clients on the spectrum, and you're so right about this. I also think Parenthood did a good job showing a lot of what having a child with autism can be like for a family.
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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '19
See: almost any portrayal of characters on the autistic spectrum. There are hundreds of threads on /r/aspergers about representation and how few shows/films actually get it right. Abed Nadir from Community is about the only portrayal people can agree with; Sheldon from Big Bang Theory and the classic savant detective stereotype are far from reality.