He walked at age 4 and in a sidelong manner, had impaired motor ability, had difficulty with abstractions, and below average intelligence (IQ=87) however, he scored very high in some subtests. He remembered almost everything he had ever read and. Like Raymond, Kim Peek had extreme memory abilities. Until we can explain his abilities, we cannot pretend to understand human cognition. As an adult, he had the mental reasoning of a child of five and was unable to dress himself, cook, shave, or brush his teeth without help. The movie was inspired by the real Rain Man Kim Peek, who sadly passed away in 2011. Kim Peek-the inspiration for Rain Main-possesses one of the most extraordinary memories ever recorded. Kim’s head was 30% larger than normal at birth, which required support physical support because of its weight. The five universities that studied him decided that he was a genius in at least 15 subjects when most savants reach a similar level in one or two subjects. In 1987, Dustin Hoffman requested to meet Kim to help him prepare for his role. In 1985, screenwriter Barry Morrow met Kim Peek by chance, and was so blown away that he decided to write the story which would eventually become Rain Man. Kim had faultless knowledge of the calendar stretching back 2,000 years.Ĭlick here for a You Tube video on the life of Kim Peek It’s fair to say that without Kim, the blockbuster hit probably would never have existed. He used the telephone directory for exercise in mental arithmetic, adding each column of the seven-digit numbers together in his head until he reached figures in the trillions. By age 14, Kim had completed the high school curriculum, though local authorities would not recognize the achievement and refused to award him a certificateīy the age 18, he read and memorized the complete works of Shakespeare and every story in every volume of the condensed Reader’s Digest books. Expelled on his first day for being disruptive (no special education laws at the time), he was home schooled. His parents declined, and Kim went on to memorize the entire bible before his seventh birthday. Until we can explain his abilities, we cannot pretend to understand human cognition By Darold A. At age 6, his family was offered a lobotomy. Kim Peek possesses one of the most extraordinary memories ever recorded. At age 16 months old, he taught himself to read children’s books. His ability to retain 98% of the information he absorbed led to his designation “mega-savant”.īy the time he was nine-moths old he was expected to be mentally impaired for life. He is the only savant know who could read two pages of a book simultaneously – one with each eye, regardless of whether it was upside down or sideways on. Kim Peek, a mega savant, could read a page of a book in ten seconds (about a book per hour), remembered everything he had read, can recall 12,000 books, does formidable calculations in his head, and remembered music he had heard decades ago. Kim Peek (Novem– December 19, 2009), the original Rain Man Kim Peek- Click picture for more information.
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