Child prodigies are unusual for their early and exceptional adoption of what are traditionally
thought of as adult abilities. As part of an effort to better understand the underpinnings of these
extraordinary individuals' talent, the researcher examined the cognitive and developmental
profiles of eight child prodigies by taking their developmental histories and administering the
Stanford-Binet 5th ed. full scale intelligence test and the Autism-Spectrum Quotient (AQ). The
collected data reveals a startling picture. While each of the prodigies demonstrated an at least
moderately elevated level of intelligence, the prodigies' full scale IQ scores were not consistently
on the extreme end of the spectrum.Whatwas consistently extraordinary, however,was the child
prodigies' working memory scores—a category in which every prodigy tested in the 99th
percentile. Additional results suggest a previously unknown connection between child prodigies
and autism. The prodigies' family histories yielded an unlikely number of autistic relatives. And
the child prodigies received elevated AQ scores with respect to attention to detail, a trait
associated with autism. The prodigies did not, however, displaymany of the other traits typically
associated with autism. This result raises the possibility of a moderated autism that actually
enables the prodigies' extraordinary talent.