An 11-year-old autistic boy is cooking up an internet storm with his unbelievable ability to draw a map of the world freehand, from memory!
The boy’s mom is a college professor, and he happened to sit in on one of her classes a few weeks ago. During the class, he apparently walked up to the whiteboard and reproduced the entire map of the world, complete with the names of the countries. The students in the classroom were so amazed that they immediately took pictures with their phones, which eventually got posted on news sharing site Reddit.
Not only does the boy’s drawing accurately depict the overall shape of the continents, it also shows political divides and even the frozen little islands up in the Arctic Circle. The map is a great example of the fact that while autism might limit a child’s social skills, it could greatly enhance other strengths and skills.
This isn’t the first time we’re seeing something like this – a few months ago we wrote about this Chinese teacher who stunned his students by reproducing a map on the blackboard from memory. But not only was he a geography teacher, his rendition of the world map was not as detailed as this kid’s.
Over the years, we’ve seen a variety of superhuman skills brought out by autism, like the gifts of Daniel Tammet, an autistic savant who can perform complex calculations and learn foreign languages in a matter of days, or Stephen Wiltshire, a.k.a. The Human Camera, who can memorize and draw complicated city skylines from memory. But, after decades of research, we’re still a long way from understanding how it works on a neurological level.
via Reddit
