The co-occurrence of talent and disability is proverbial. According to a rough estimate about 50% of savant individuals suffer from autism, while the remaining 50% have other forms of developmental disability (Treffert 1989, 2009). The incidence of talent is also very high in dyslexic populations (Geschwind 1982, Vail 1990, Turkington & Harris 2006, Ehardt 2008). Despite advances in recent research of how the respective strengths of talented individuals interact in a complex way with their disability, sound and reliable explanations are still due. Some current theories, for example explain the exceptional abilities of such individuals in terms of a compensation for a brain dysfunction. An important question is whether talent necessarily obtains at the expense of a disability, e.g., whether there is a causal relation between deficit and gift or simply random co-occurrence (Mottron, Limoges & Jelenic 2001). It has also been suggested that some developmental disorders should be rather characterised as differences in processing or cognitive style compared to controls (Happé & Frith 2006, Milne 2005, Károlyi et al. 2003, Everatt et al. 1999). The conference seeks to address

• dissociations, such as talent (savant individuals) and the co-existence of deficits in the same individual (e.g., autism, developmental dyslexia): what is the nature of this co-existence (one thing at the expense of the other?); what mechanisms explain this co-existence and account for how this individual functions more or less successfully (e.g., the talent, also compensatory strategies in the deficit)
• double dissociations (cf. White et al. 2006)
• clusters of talent
• co-morbidity (clusters of deficits) in some disorders (most notably dyslexia, speech and language disorders) and how to tease them apart
• the great individual variation in developmental disorders (Autism Spectrum Disorders, dyslexia) with the aim of establishing specific profiles/types within each group

Invited speakers:

• Joel Talcott, Aston University, UK
• Jussi Niemi, University of Joensuu
• Margarita Stankova, New Bulgarian University, Bulgaria
• David Saldaña, University of Sevilla, Spain

In the press:

• article in Adresseavisen
• article in Morgenbladet

On the radio:

• NRK

The Workshop is organized by Language Acquisition and Language Processing Lab, Department of Modern Languages, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Organizing Committee:

• Mila Dimitrova-Vulchanova
• Rik Eshuis
• Sindre Norås
• Liliana Martinez
• Valentin Vulchanov

Important dates:

• Abstract submission deadline: June 15
• Author notification/Programme available: August 1
• Registration: August 10

Abstracts of 500 words reporting original research should be sent electronically at the following address: valentin.vulchanov@hf.ntnu.no