Shownotes Transcript
Camille Miller)
My son cannot lie. He is also a genius, with a very high IQ.
He has autism, and as a result he has great difficulty lying. One of the effects of autism is that the affected individual simply cannot imagine a reality differently than it is.
Example: At 2 years old I picked up a banana and held it to my ear, saying, "Ring ring! Who is it? Hello?" as if it were a telephone. He lost it and started screaming. Why? Because he knew the banana was a BANANA, and not a telephone. Not only could he not comprehend the alternative reality - it was actually upsetting to him!
Learning to pretend, make believe, or imagine an alternative reality has been a great challenge for him. Lying is arguably the greatest game of make believe possible (often with negative consequences), because you have to convince not only yourself, but others as well, of a different reality. And he just can't do it.
Now that you understand why he has difficulty lying, let me tell you about his intelligence.
I hesitate to say how high his IQ is because people are competitive and mean and I don't want a debate, but it is high. MUCH higher than mine. He tests out of subjects in school, and amazes people with his abilities regularly. He is ten years old.
He has been amazing since birth, but people really began noticing it at 3 years old, when he was able to construct block towers that shouldn't have been able to stand - but they did! He could pull a melody apart and put it back together in another key before he was six. He can actually hear fish eating, and picks up on other sounds happening outside of a regular sensory range. Think Einstein, Mozart, Newton - that's his kind of company. DaVinci & Beethoven are his heroes.
Though my son has many social weaknesses (like the inability to pretend/lie), he has a truly astounding intellect. So no, I don't believe honesty and intelligence are related.