Autism in general doesn’t make a child smarter. Autism is a spectrum that can range from mental retardation to super smart and everything inbetween just like typical people.

Your friend being able to type on 2 computers is from him not having good bilateral skills (using both sides of the body together like riding a bike). He keeps the left half of his on his left side and the same with his right. Crossing midline (using the right or left sides on the opposite side) is actually a big milestone for toddlers. Remembering what he reads is just how his brain works. He may not process information heard that well, so to compensate, everything he reads will stick. Your friend also doesn’t function well in social settings, and probably doesn’t like socializing.

A typical kid being gifted doesn’t sound as extreme as an Autistic Savant. A savant is someone with any form of disibility that excels in an area way past their typical peers. Like Daniel Tammet. He’s Autistic, and also has messed up senses (can’t remember or spell the word for it), and he recited PI to the 22, 514th digit in a museum one day. I think it took around 5 hours. Another kid named Tito, I can’t spell his real name, is severly autistic. He doesn’t make eye contact, is non verbal, and was considered low functioning. He can write, and he can explain what’s going on in his body and all around him by writing it down. I don’t think he’s a savant, but it makes you think different about a severly autistic person. Another one is Amanda Beggs- Google her, she has a really cool video.

In my opinion, I don’t see how many children with Autism can even be given an accurate IQ score, since severe social and communication impairments are typical.

Not all children with autism are geniuses. In fact, many (not all), have some mental retardation. But yes, there are some very intelligent, in fact; genius autists. Some are savants (such as Dustin Hoffman’s character in Rainman).

Autism is a spectrum disorder and there are 250+ variances on the spectrum. No two autistic people are alike.

In a way, autism is like the opposite of ADD, and in fact, people with an incidence of ADHD/ADD in their families, often run a higher chance of also having someone with autism in their family, too. However, ADD makes it difficult for an individual to concentrate on any one thing because everything seems equally important. Autism, on the other hand, enables an individual to concentrate on one thing to the exclusion of all other things. That’s why they may have extensive knowledge of a few subjects, but are not able to put that knowledge into practice. Like they may be able to recite all prime numbers, but unable to balance their checkbook, and so on.

It is called an autism spectrum because different individuals manifest different aspects of the disorder, and to different degrees. It sounds like your friend is very high-functioning, indeed, to be as successful as he is. I imagine MP work suits him very well as it is very concrete and structured. I would guess he probably has great difficulty with all those it depends kinds of situations, as those with autism normally find it very difficult to process abstract scenarios.

Of course, this is an oversimplification of a couple of very complex disorders. Hope you find it helpful, anyway.

My son hs autism and i have found from him and others with it that they are really smart in certain areas because they get more focused then the rest of us do.
they will get so focused they have know idea there is a world going on around them.
i could only wish i could have half of that focus