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• 1 2017-11-14T19:08:41-08:00 Everything Comes with Time 11 (Alexia) image_header 2017-11-19T19:16:32-08:00             Although Stephen was unable to speak in full sentences to interact with other individuals when he was a young boy, his condition drastically improved with time, which illustrates how age and experience plays a significant role in developing social skills. This also shows how savants are not stagnant or stuck in social isolation, but rather, their familiarization with society is much more delayed than the typical individual. Sacks observed that Stephen “increasingly… showed a sort of pseudosocial conduct, talking to strangers in an indiscriminate and bizarre way” and that “his language had developed a good deal since the early times” (204). Just from this observation, it can be seen that Stephen was able to develop a relatively more sophisticated form of communication through small conversation, even “excited babble” (204), instead of being completely mute and refusing to communicate at all. As Stephen began to adapt to his surroundings and as his language developed, he started to realize the purpose of speaking how he felt or what he was passionate about, resulting in increased efforts to interact with others.
  
  
              In fact, Michael Tolleson, another autistic artist, is currently 58 years old and works as an artist, author, and public speaker, which supports the observation that skills become more developed with time, until eventually, a high level of sophistication and comfort in communicating is achieved. However, Michael was diagnosed with a very mild Asperger’s, which is a type of autism, at the age of 50 years old, so he was able to develop social skills at a relatively faster pace for an individual with autism. But nonetheless, Michael’s case provides insight on how Stephen may eventually accomplish the same level of active social involvement as a healthy adult, just with more time.