Our son, Ronan, 12, who is on the autism spectrum has been a human calculator for as long as we can remember and has a photographic memory, but we recently found out that he’s also a “calendar calculator”. We only found out by accident when I was asking him random Math questions (like, how many days have passed since I was born? How many seconds? Etc., Then I said, …do you know what day of the week I was born on?
And he thought about it and spit it out. Since then, his brothers and I have been having a really fun time playing the calendar game with him. Give him any date in history (or even dates in the future) and he’s able to tell you what day of the week that date fell on (or falls on).
He’s very useful around our house when we need fast calculation, conversions into different measurement units, etc., I think at least twice a week we’re asking him how many carbs is this or that and he gives us the number in a matter of seconds…it’s so much faster than the long hand math Erin and I would have to do.
He used to be that way, but he’s had some amazing help from his mother and 3 or 4 teachers. He’s now able to be in general education classes (but there’s an aid that sits in the back of the classroom in case he starts to act up…he sometimes now “gets silly” in class and starts laughing or singing and has to be taken out of the classroom, but that’s rare these days also.)
He used to be sensitive to anything loud, anything bright, certain textures, anyone touching him, but that’s all gotten better now for the most part. Now his only major drawback is his antisocial behavior (he’s happier in his own head, in his own world), but he does love to cut up and play with his brothers.
He also has problem with anything that requires analytical reasoning. He’s great with facts, but has issues where he’s required to “think outside the box” or derive a conclusion based on some facts, but the answer isn’t in the writing itself.