Prodigies: Stephen Wiltshire - Essay Example

Teachers at Queensmill encouraged him to speak by taking away his art drawings so that he could ask for them when he needs them. He responded by making some sounds, which made him eventually utter his first-word paper and he finally, learned to speak when he was nine years old (Sacks, 2012). He is highly interested in American cars; Stephen became fascinated with an architectural drawing of landmark London buildings.

One of his teachers took him on a drawing excursion and entered his work in a children’s competition, of which he won many of the awards. The media become impressed and suspicious of how a young child could sketch such masterful drawings. The interest from the local media became national when he attained eight years of age; thus, enabling him to launch his lifelong career. When he turned nine, he received his first work from Prime Minister Edward Heath to make an architectural drawing of Salisbury Cathedral. At the age of 10, Stephen embarked on his project dubbed, London alphabet, which was a group of pictures depicting landmark structures that are found in London starting from Albert hall to London zoo (Happé & Frith, 2009).

A career in arts does not warrant starvation for a lifetime. Stephen, who is currently a successful and renowned artist in the U.K found the road to success both psychologically and financially.

He did many things correctly to achieve the fan base, fame, and financial stability that he enjoys currently. A mixture of good intuitive decisions and raw talent from that tender age was his recipe for success. He is much motivated and he feels encouraged when he makes other people feel happy thereby making him proud, he has a motto that says, “Do the best you can and never stop. He cannot live alone because he needs moral support from close family relatives; this is evident as he still lives with his mum (Sacks, 2012).

Stephen is very confident and loves London. He is an ambassador for those suffering from autism and their parents. He also assists the disabled by talking to them and telling them how drawing changed his life. Wiltshire is currently 34 years old and some of his accomplishments include the panorama of Tokyo, Rome that covers the Vatican and St. Peters Cathedral among others (Happé & Frith, 2009).

Temple Grandin and Stephen are similar in the sense that both were diagnosed with autism at the age of three and they are both advocates for autism. However, they are completely different in the manner they do perceive their autism. While Temple communicated through humming and screaming when she was in need of something, Stephen communicated through drawing. Temple has a doctoral degree in animal science which made her become a great researcher among many in the studies on animal behavior while Stephen became famous for his inconceivable aptitude to reproduce his environs on paper (Happé & Frith, 2009).