Daniel Tammet Speaks
Daniel Tammet, author of Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant, answered questions from readers in an online discussion today via the Washington Post. I highlight two:
On seeing colors and textures and more in words:
“The colour-word association is synaesthetic rather than planned, so the colours don’t follow any particular classification but rather appear spontaneously to me. The first letter of a word generally dictates the colour the whole word will take: words beginning with ‘w’ are always blue, ones beginning with ‘g’ are always green, those beginning with ‘h’ are always white etc.
On the “take on the genetics vs. environmental exposure debate”
“Autism is a profoundly complex condition, with as many forms as there are people with it. I think this is one reason why some people grab on to simplistic explanations for the condition (such as the vaccination controversy). I believe there is enough good scientific evidence to suggest that autism occurs prenatally and is not in fact caused by environmental factors such as bad parenting or vaccination.”
Go here for the rest of the Washington Post interview on this “bitty yellow” Thursday.
Related Stories
POSTED IN: Autism Lit, Books, Cause, Sensory
1 opinion for Daniel Tammet Speaks
VAB
Apr 12, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Thanks for posting this.
“Autism is a profoundly complex condition, with as many forms as there are people with it. ”
That definitely seems to be the case. I suppose, while we are at it, we could also say that life is a profoundly complex condition, with as many forms as there are people with it.
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: