Minds that are NOT autistic are called neurotypical. We know very well the potential that a neurotypical brain has for reaching great heights in math (like in this blog post HERE). But, it's always interesting to see how math traverses a brain that's wired a little differently.
Meet Jake Barnett. He's 13, and a sophomore in college. He is autistic, but that has meant an unusual -- and extraordinary -- ability with math. This includes total recall of numbers -- he says he never forgets numbers or math problems, ever -- and being able to pick up number patterns with no apparent difficulty. Like the afternoon that he memorized 200 places of pi, which he can recite backwards with ease.
Jake uses what he deems the "fourth dimension", which he says is tangent to the other three, to solve math problems. He visualizes math in a way that we don't typically do. To him, they appear as shapes that build upon one another. He is also able to manipulate sequences and grasp the logic of higher mathematics in amazing ways.
Jake is proud of his autism and attributes his math success to it. We could all learn a lot about self-esteem from a person from Jake. And, we could learn some unsual methods for visualizing, learning, and loving math from this very special boy.
--------
A video of Jake talking about his math ability can be seen here
