Poet savant provides clues to language skills

An Oxford scientist believes that a study by herself and colleagues of a woman who suffers from a form of autism, yet has a truly outstanding talent for poetry, offers insights into how language skills develop. Dr Ann Dowker, a lecturer in the Department of Psychology and at St Anne's College and Wadham College, studied the work of Kate, a 45-year-old diagnosed as suffering from Asperger's syndrome, who began writing poems after being shown those written by a friend. Kate has considerable communication difficulties and needs help with managing money, doing shopping, and organising her everyday life. Dr Dowker said: `Though handicapped in many ways, Kate is judged by academic professionals in English literature and poetry a highly gifted poet.' Earlier studies have shown the phenomenon of `savant talent', where individuals have outstandingly high skill levels in mathematics, music, drawing ability, and memory, despite severe disabilities. Dr Dowker and her colleagues, Professor Beate Hermelin and Dr Linda Pring at Goldsmith's College, London, compared Kate's poetry with that of Emma, a semi-professional poet in her early thirties who has physical handicaps including moderate hearing loss. They studied 61 poems by Kate and 72 of Emma's, looking at elements such as the degree of self analysis, the frequency with which interpersonal relationships are described, and the level of description of nature and landscapes. They also analysed the use of poetic devices such as rhyme, alliteration, and metaphors. Dr Dowker and her colleagues argue that a comparison between the poor results on formal language tests and the high quality of the poems suggests Kate's savant talent is based on a specific module within the language function. This, they believe, is further evidence that language is not only separate from other aspects of cognition, but also that language itself contains a number of separable, relatively independent dimensions. `We concluded that Kate is one of the rare instances of savant talent where the emphasis is on true creativity in the area of language,' Dr Dowker said. `Statistical analysis confirmed the overall impression of the savant poet's surprisingly well-rounded poetic competence within the context of quite severe cognitive, social, and communication impairments.' This is an example of Kate's poetry: ...it is so close to sadness, my happiness, I cannot tear them apart... the dog so faithful to me Yet so scared, runs away Till I feel better... How will people who wait For me know I am suffering too much To even try to tell them, Or will they know I am trying all I can...?