Tuesday, August 11, 2009

He Knows It All Backwards

No, It’s True – He Really Does

A Hampshire boy who knew the alphabet backwards by the age of two has been invited to join Mensa. Harry Chapple, who is now four, is able to calculate the dimensions of circles and squared numbers in seconds.

FOOTNOTE: Bright spark.

8 comments:

Cheffie-Mom said...

What a smart cookie! Or should I say, "Cookie smart a what!" LOL!

Shadow said...

this guy is smarter than me!

Anonymous said...

And me...but then a great many kids are.

Maria said...

A veritable prodigy, it seems!

Maggie May said...

I hope he is not autistic & that he doesn't get ragged at school for being *the brains*.

Unknown said...

he must be an incredible youngster! I don't envy his folks, trying to keep this little guy 'normal'.
Nice post!
~AM

Mariana Soffer said...

Is this guy a prodigious savant, or he does not go that far, he has just been trained for that?

About half of persons with savant syndrome have autistic disorder, while the other half have another developmental disability, mental retardation, brain injury or disease. He says, "... not all autistic persons have savant syndrome and not all persons with savant syndrome have autistic disorder".[1] Other researchers state that autistic traits and savant skills may be linked,[2] or have challenged some earlier conclusions about savant syndrome as "hearsay, uncorroborated by independent scrutiny".

A prodigious savant is someone whose skill level would qualify him or her as a prodigy, or exceptional talent, even in the absence of a cognitive disability. Prodigious savants are those individuals whose abilities would be considered phenomenal or genius even in a person without any limitations or special diagnosis of impairment. The most common trait of these prodigious savants is their seemingly limitless mnemonic skills, with many having eidetic or photographic memories. Indeed, prodigious savants are extremely rare, with fewer than one hundred noted in more than a century of literature on the subject.

Hope you like the data

Shrinky said...

Ah, just when I was about to say this apparent blessing may well be a curse in disguise, someone has already eloquently beaten me to it!

I haven't yet met any child prodigies (I think), but I have certainly known some extremely focused autistic children, my own included.