Daniel Tammett Research Paper

Daniel Tammett is an extraordinary person in more ways than one. He has savant syndrome, which in itself is extremely rare. Savants have skills such as superior memory, lightening calculation, calendar calculating, musical ability, artistic ability, and/or language ability. Daniel has many of these. Daniel also has a “visual, emotional experience of numbers” (2) called synesthesia, which is also “a rare neurological mixing of the senses” (2), and on top of those two disorders, he also has Asperger’s syndrome. Having one of those can be so debilitating that it can be extremely hard to function in the world, but having three?? If someone were to say they had those disorders, it would be assumed that he/she would be living in a hospital because they would need help with daily living. Daniel is strong though, and he never let any of his disorders keep him down. That is a unique thing about him.
He “spent hours looking at book after book trying in vain to find one that had my name on it” (12), he then realized that if he wanted to see his name on a book, he “was going to have to write it first” (12). Now, college students are reading his book with his name on the cover. There are many reasons, besides the fact he wanted to see his name on a book, that Daniel wrote this book. Today he is “living completely independently, with a loving relationship and a career” (12). Daniel says that if someone had “told my parents ten years ago” (12) that this is where he would be, they would not have believed it, and he may not have either. One reason Daniel gives for writing this book is, “Writing about my life has given me the opportunity to get some perspective on just how far I’ve come, and to trace the arc of my journey up to the present” (12). This book is a type of journal for Daniel; if he gets discouraged he can read it and realize the obstacles that he overcame and that he can still do much