When Daniel was four, terrible bouts of epilepsy, coupled with his Autism seem to have brought out his incredible savant abilities. Daniel is able to visualize and calculate massive numbers in his head. He first became famous when he recited Pi from memory down to 22,514 decimal places to raise money for the National Society of Epilepsy on International Pi Day (3/14). But it doesn’t stop there! Along with his mathematical capabilities, Daniel is able to learn different languages at incredible rates and is currently fluent in 11 languages. His extraordinary ability was put to the test in the documentary “The Boy with the Incredible Brain” where he was taken to Iceland where he was to learn the language in 7 days, which would end in an interview on Icelandic television. Icelandic is regarded as one of the hardest languages to learn, with it’s odd sounds and grammar, Icelandic is given a stigma as “Impossible to Learn.” To the surprise of the film makers, Daniel was able to pull off the entire interview in Icelandic, showing true comprehension by even spouting out a few jokes. Daniels form of Autism is very rare even in the category of savants. Where others have trouble with every day tasks and simple language skills, Daniel is Self-Aware and able to articulate his thoughts clearly. This ability helps scientist to better understand the Phenomenon by simple being able to talk with him and learn what he sees.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 23:25:53 +0000