According to a study done by CNN, Autism disease affects 1 in every 68 children in America today. Autism by definition is: a mental condition, present from early childhood, characterized by difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people and in using language and abstract concepts.
It is a disease that has sadly affected my family, as I have two cousins with the disorder. My whole life, I have been around and experienced autism first hand. My older cousin, Charles is an 18-year old boy that loves trains, and traveling to new places. He at first may seem different because of his difficulty in communication skills but once you get to talking to Charles, he really is an incredible person. Growing up with Charles, I helped him learn how to read and write, and how to speak. Every Wednesday I would go to his house, and we would practice different reading and writing and speaking skills. After we would finish practicing every day, we would go outside and we would play. However, Charles found games such as basketball and baseball to be more difficult, and frustrating. But what I would notice later on is that Charles had an exceptional ability. It wasn’t the ability to jump high or run fast or throw a football, it was his memory. 
-Shown above is my cousin Charles (Right) and next to him my cousin Elizabeth who also has autism. Both love to travel!
It was on Christmas day my family and I discovered Charles’ incredible ability. We had all finished our Christmas dinner and were sitting around telling old stories. One of the stories was the day my younger brother Johnny was born. I do not remember the birth of my brother well, as I was only 3 years old.(So was Charles, he was born a week before me) My Uncle Jay began to say, “I still remember that day so clear-” and before he could even finish his sentence Charles exclaimed, “February 18th, 1999. Tuesday!” Everyone at the table was rather confused, and thought at first it was just Charles making one of his usual jokes. But then my mother realized, my brother was born on a Tuesday. We asked Charles, how he knew that, and he laughed. After this, my mother went into the kitchen and grabbed an old calender. We began to read off dates from years previous, and one by one, Charles remembered every date and which day of the week it was. It was remarkable. What amazed me the most was he was never wrong, and continued to answer each date correctly. I researched Autism and Special talents and found Charles is not alone.
Very rarely, people are born with what is called “Savant Behavior.” Savant abilities are not just special abilities, they are extraordinarily special abilities that cannot be duplicated by most other human beings. These special abilities usually coexist with the other severe disabilities that characterize moderate to severe forms of autism. Although not all savants are autistic the number of savants with autism is far greater than the number of savants without autism. The article which I found, describes specific Savant Behaviors and to my surprise, exactly cites the ability to remember dates and which day of the week they would fall in. It also talks about the rarity of obtaining these incredible talents, which is only 10% of those with Autism. The article is extremely interesting and relate-able to both of my cousins, I encourage anyone to read it. Article on Savant Behavior
I realize that anecdotal observations, such as my observations of my cousin Charles are not the strongest inferences, however my opinion on the topic is further proven by more examples of such habits. I did some research, and found many other children just like Charles that had savant behavior. The article I found of a boy named Henry talks about Henry’s childhood, and finding his “niche, or other ability that no one knew he had.” Along with finding similar examples of Autistic children’s abilities, I also furthered my analysis by finding studies about Savant behavior in autistic people, and how it is correlated more with autistic people than people without autism or any other mental disorder.
In conclusion of my research, I found that my cousins are different in more ways than one. Charles’ extreme mathematical ability to remember dates well before he was born is a prime example of Savant Behavior. I can say with supporting evidence that Autism and Savant Behavior according to research I have found, are directly correlated.
Sources:
-https://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/professional/savant-syndrome/resources/articles/savant-syndrome-2013-myths-and-realities/
-http://sevencounties.org/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=8768&cn=20
-autismspeaks.org
-http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/27/health/cdc-autism/
That’s such an amazing story! In my high school, the special needs students loved interacting with my friends and I, so we were able to get to know some of them really well and things like this amazed me. I met one boy with autism back in eighth grade and watched him grow all throughout high school and it made me so happy to see how everyone in the school knew him. And if this wasn’t enough, he knew everyone in the school as well. He would come up to me at least once, it not more, times a day and say “Hi Amanda!”. It blew my mind that he was able to remember everyone’s name in my school. There was about 320 students in my graduating class, so about 1200 in the entire school. Learning more and more about autism throughout my years of high school really opened my eyes to the world and allowed me to see different peoples points of views.
What an amazing story. I also have a cousin who has autism. My cousin autism is at a different level than your cousin from what I’m reading, it’s really hard to communicate with him. He’s about fifteen-years-old and your story reminds me of a similar story.
We went to the airport to pick up one of my cousins coming to the U.S who hasn’t been here for more than ten years. The last time he saw her when he was like four years old. As we’re waiting in the airport, he starts yelling her name “Alia, Alia.” We all thought that it was him being himself saying random names. But, there she was. I honestly think that he’s the smartest guy I know, but because of his mental disorder he can’t show it.
For some reason he likes my hair. Whenever I’m about to go home, or he’s about to leave our home, he tends to just grab my hair and doesn’t let go. I’d like to think that he doesn’t want me to go, but I don’t really know why. Even though, Autism affects 1 in every 68 child in the United States, people are not as aware about the mental disability as they should be. I’ve read so many articles about neighbors complaining about the noise even some hate letters. I find this very disturbing. Even my own neighbor sometime complains when my cousin comes over of the loud noise. We went to her and explained to her the situation yet she seems to complain most of the times. I think that Autism is one of the most under-looked and isn’t recognized the way it should be.