AUTISTIC PROTAGONIST (PART 2)

As I mentioned in my previous posts, I am thinking of making the main character of my dinosaur book autistic. From personal experience, I know that some of the side effects of having autism includes an above average intellect and having laser focus on your interests. Due to this, my character will be a child prodigy with savant syndrome, an IQ that is off the charts, and is hyper-focused on his research. Savant syndrome is a rare condition that develops in people with mental disabilities such as autism and it gives the user highly advanced memory and calculation skills that are far above average. According to experts, an IQ that is level 130 or higher signifies high level of intelligence, but my character’s IQ will be more than twice that. I know from personal experience how focused an autistic person can be and once something interests me, my eyes are hooked into it like a hawk and I don’t take my eyes off the ball. On the outside, he won’t seem autistic to an average person, which is something I notice when people look at me. In 2018, Jack Horner, paleontologist and the mastermind behind the reverse engineering experiment, claims that we can achieve the technology to reverse engineer birds back into dinosaurs in five or ten years. However, if a scientist with the intellect and skills I mentioned engaged in this experiment, I believe the technology could be achieved a lot sooner. Unfortunately, even with all that knowledge, focus, and skills, my character will still have difficulty forming connections with his fellow human beings. These will be some of the challenges my character will face as he and the other characters struggle to survive.