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The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum
Goodreads Choice Award
Winner for Readers' Favorite Nonfiction (2013)Temple Grandin may be the most famous person with autism, a condition that affects 1 in 88 children. Since her birth in 1947, our understanding of it has undergone a great transformation, leading to more hope than ever before that we may finally learn the causes of and treatments for autism.
Weaving her own experience with remarkable new discoveries, Grandin introduces the advances in neuroimaging and genetic research that link brain science to behavior, even sharing her own brain scan to show which anomalies might explain common symptoms. Most excitingly, she argues that raising and educating kids on the autism spectrum must focus on their long-overlooked strengths to foster their unique contributions.
The Autistic Brain brings Grandin’s singular perspective into the heart of the autism revolution.
Weaving her own experience with remarkable new discoveries, Grandin introduces the advances in neuroimaging and genetic research that link brain science to behavior, even sharing her own brain scan to show which anomalies might explain common symptoms. Most excitingly, she argues that raising and educating kids on the autism spectrum must focus on their long-overlooked strengths to foster their unique contributions.
The Autistic Brain brings Grandin’s singular perspective into the heart of the autism revolution.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 30, 2013
2458 people are currently reading
31910 people want to read
About the author
Temple Grandin
168 books1,771 followersMary Temple Grandin is an American academic and animal behaviorist. She is a prominent proponent of the humane treatment of livestock for slaughter and the author of more than 60 scientific papers on animal behavior. Grandin is a consultant to the livestock industry, where she offers advice on animal behavior, and is also an autism spokesperson.
Grandin is one of the first autistic people to document the insights she gained from her personal experiences with autism. She is a faculty member with Animal Sciences in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Colorado State University.
In 2010, Time 100, an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, named her in the "Heroes" category. She was the subject of the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning biographical film Temple Grandin. Grandin has been an outspoken proponent of autism rights and neurodiversity movements.
Grandin is one of the first autistic people to document the insights she gained from her personal experiences with autism. She is a faculty member with Animal Sciences in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Colorado State University.
In 2010, Time 100, an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, named her in the "Heroes" category. She was the subject of the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning biographical film Temple Grandin. Grandin has been an outspoken proponent of autism rights and neurodiversity movements.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,070 reviews
July 1, 2013
I avoid books on autism. I don’t like the terminology of the “autism spectrum” and the snake oil cures that celebrities like to flaunt. I have worked with the seriously autistic for more than 25 years – the hard-core institutionalized kind – and have little tolerance for someone who thinks their child is autistic simply because he’s an introvert. And for the last 30 years I’ve had a profoundly impaired autistic foster son, and all that happy information for the mainstreamed four year old who might have Asperger’s does not apply to hard autism. Thus, I have avoided reading anything by Temple Grandin, the Holy Saint of autism.
My bad.
In The Autistic Brain, Grandin discusses very rationally the numerous scientific studies done on communicative autistics, how they often have an inner thinking self and an outer acting self, and how the two don’t often interact. The current psychiatric labels, she feels, do autistics a huge disservice by lumping so many people under one umbrella no one can tell who is who – and leads to misdiagnoses and disproportionate numbers. She discusses how functional MRI imaging shows the different ways different autistics perceive the world, and that one type of treatment will not work for all, and that it’s the brain that’s the issue, not the psychoanalysis. That reiterated some serious studies I had read years ago. She talks about the part genetics plays, and how research has shown some links, but no answers at all. Grandin stresses that education for autistics – whether the high-functioning Aspie who will find success in Silicon Valley or the non-verbal autistic who cannot dress himself independently – needs to focus on what strengths the person has, not what deficits, and that deficits can be improved by using strengths, and that these children, no matter what the functioning level, need to get out into society and learn even rudimentary social skills, for that is the only way they will ever progress.
Grandin’s discussion of picture-thinkers, pattern-thinkers, and word-fact thinkers set my mind reeling to the hundred or so autistic children I have worked with, and the lightbulbs went on over my head. I thought about things I have tried, things that have worked, and things that have failed in a whole new light, and cannot wait to try new trajectories w/ my son. Grandin made me feel good that we have defied the “experts,” taking my son – whom no group home would touch because his behaviors were so severe – to places like Manhattan, Baltimore, Boston, boats, trains, weddings, and more – with a 90% success rate. She made me understand how J. can do things no “autistic” is supposed to be able to do. I cannot recommend this book enough to anyone dealing with an autistic person of any functioning level. Thank you, Temple, for understanding. You’ve taught this old dog some new tricks without all that quick-cure quackery, and made a believer out of me.
My bad.
In The Autistic Brain, Grandin discusses very rationally the numerous scientific studies done on communicative autistics, how they often have an inner thinking self and an outer acting self, and how the two don’t often interact. The current psychiatric labels, she feels, do autistics a huge disservice by lumping so many people under one umbrella no one can tell who is who – and leads to misdiagnoses and disproportionate numbers. She discusses how functional MRI imaging shows the different ways different autistics perceive the world, and that one type of treatment will not work for all, and that it’s the brain that’s the issue, not the psychoanalysis. That reiterated some serious studies I had read years ago. She talks about the part genetics plays, and how research has shown some links, but no answers at all. Grandin stresses that education for autistics – whether the high-functioning Aspie who will find success in Silicon Valley or the non-verbal autistic who cannot dress himself independently – needs to focus on what strengths the person has, not what deficits, and that deficits can be improved by using strengths, and that these children, no matter what the functioning level, need to get out into society and learn even rudimentary social skills, for that is the only way they will ever progress.
Grandin’s discussion of picture-thinkers, pattern-thinkers, and word-fact thinkers set my mind reeling to the hundred or so autistic children I have worked with, and the lightbulbs went on over my head. I thought about things I have tried, things that have worked, and things that have failed in a whole new light, and cannot wait to try new trajectories w/ my son. Grandin made me feel good that we have defied the “experts,” taking my son – whom no group home would touch because his behaviors were so severe – to places like Manhattan, Baltimore, Boston, boats, trains, weddings, and more – with a 90% success rate. She made me understand how J. can do things no “autistic” is supposed to be able to do. I cannot recommend this book enough to anyone dealing with an autistic person of any functioning level. Thank you, Temple, for understanding. You’ve taught this old dog some new tricks without all that quick-cure quackery, and made a believer out of me.
September 11, 2013
Her best yet.
So many times while going through this, I pictured Obama after the Zimmerman verdict was delivered, trying to get a country to understand what it's like to live as a black man in America. Temple takes on a task no less daunting in trying to help Neurotypicals appreciate the experience of a life lived inside the head of someone on the autistic spectrum. She describes how even her own assumptions about autistics were off the mark initially. Explaining the difference between the inside person and the outside person, the one who feels and the one we observe, and listing examples of how the inside person is just as "normal" as the people who make the rules and decide what's acceptable behaviour and not, she makes her case. Think all autistics are incapable of deciphering facial expressions? Think some can't understand as much as anyone else if the presentation of images are slowed down? Think again. That's what you'll do over and over. You'll gain a new way of looking at "normal" in the process. The autistic spectrum has just as much variance as neurotypical when you consider that normal is just a mathematical concept that does not exist in the real world. Ever met a family with 2.4 children? Then why assume all people with an autistic spectrum diagnosis have a normal way of seeing the world? When she takes the DSM-5 to task, I wasn't just smiling, I was cheering.
Required reading for anyone who likes to call themselves enlightened. An excellent consideration of walking a mile in those shoes for the rest of us, even if those are your shoes. This scientist lays out a roadmap of the brain, your brain and mine, and explains how recent advancements in neurology have moved the ideas associated with autism from psychology (it's all in your mind) to neurobiology (it's about your brain). She then extrapolates some very compelling concepts and future areas of study she deems worthy of consideration. We are all the richer from having had this woman living among us and expressing her thoughts about the experience. This work isn't just about the advances in science or medicine, it's about their impact on our understanding of the human experience. Yours, mine... theirs. Even if you like to pretend you're normal. We're more alike than you suspect. She shows us how.
So many times while going through this, I pictured Obama after the Zimmerman verdict was delivered, trying to get a country to understand what it's like to live as a black man in America. Temple takes on a task no less daunting in trying to help Neurotypicals appreciate the experience of a life lived inside the head of someone on the autistic spectrum. She describes how even her own assumptions about autistics were off the mark initially. Explaining the difference between the inside person and the outside person, the one who feels and the one we observe, and listing examples of how the inside person is just as "normal" as the people who make the rules and decide what's acceptable behaviour and not, she makes her case. Think all autistics are incapable of deciphering facial expressions? Think some can't understand as much as anyone else if the presentation of images are slowed down? Think again. That's what you'll do over and over. You'll gain a new way of looking at "normal" in the process. The autistic spectrum has just as much variance as neurotypical when you consider that normal is just a mathematical concept that does not exist in the real world. Ever met a family with 2.4 children? Then why assume all people with an autistic spectrum diagnosis have a normal way of seeing the world? When she takes the DSM-5 to task, I wasn't just smiling, I was cheering.
Required reading for anyone who likes to call themselves enlightened. An excellent consideration of walking a mile in those shoes for the rest of us, even if those are your shoes. This scientist lays out a roadmap of the brain, your brain and mine, and explains how recent advancements in neurology have moved the ideas associated with autism from psychology (it's all in your mind) to neurobiology (it's about your brain). She then extrapolates some very compelling concepts and future areas of study she deems worthy of consideration. We are all the richer from having had this woman living among us and expressing her thoughts about the experience. This work isn't just about the advances in science or medicine, it's about their impact on our understanding of the human experience. Yours, mine... theirs. Even if you like to pretend you're normal. We're more alike than you suspect. She shows us how.
February 12, 2016
This book is written as two parts. The first is an overview of the current state of research into the causes of autism, in turn divided into subsections on brain structure and genetics. The second is a personal and impassioned but not terribly coherent plea for Aspies to be defined as much for their strengths as their weaknesses, indeed for Aspie traits to be seen just as traits without any attendant value judgements about them at all.
Part 1 is excellent, giving a very comprehensive picture of what is and is not known about variations in brain structure between neurotypical and autistic brains whilst providing necessary caveats about the limitations of the imaging equipment used (especially fMRI which I advise all readers to be extremely sceptical about when used in psychological experiments). The follow-up on genetics is just as good, revealing that there are hundreds of genetic variations implicated in autism and that many of them are associated with the brain in some way.
There is a also a short discussion of environmental factors (drugs, pesticides etc.). It's short mainly because there's been very little research on the subject.
If I am to be critical of part 1 at all it is that some of the technicalities of both brain anatomy and genetic theory aren't explained in sufficient detail for non-biologists. (My lack of grasp of genetics is an increasing frustration to me; if you know of a good introductory text on the subject please tell me about it!)
Part 2 is not so fabulous and causes a star to be docked. The material is much more personal and is not organised in a very clear fashion. Grandin admits that this has never been her strong suit but her journalist co-author was evidently unable to completely sort out the problem.
There seem to be two main points. The first is advocating research that is based on single symptoms. Instead of taking autistic people and comparing them to neurotypical people, take people with a specific symptom, e.g. extreme hearing sensitivities and compare them with people who don't. One does not necessarily have to be autistic to have such a sensitivity and if you're autistic you won't necessarily have it either. This makes a great deal of sense to me from a scientific stand-point and I hope researchers adopt the approach.
The second main point is to try to see past labels to people and recognise their strengths as well as their weaknesses and that traits are actually neutral and are only strengths or weaknesses in their contexts. Well, I can get behind that but along the way we are treated to some bizarrely self-contradictory opinions.
On the one hand we are told that Grandin was hopeless at geometry and that her teacher should have given up on the subject and taught something else she could do instead e.g. geometry. On the other, we are later subjected to a rant in which Aspies with various difficulties that Grandin doesn't have should essentially "get over it." I find this to be on exactly the same level as telling a depressed person to "pull yourself together" and pretty offensive.
Taking this along with her completely false (and now dropped) assumption that because she is Aspie and she thinks in pictures primarily, all Aspies must think in pictures, what I see is a woman who is very poor at figuring out the level of variation there is in human modes of thought. Assuming everybody sees the world the way you do is, however a very Aspie trait!
Part 1 is excellent, giving a very comprehensive picture of what is and is not known about variations in brain structure between neurotypical and autistic brains whilst providing necessary caveats about the limitations of the imaging equipment used (especially fMRI which I advise all readers to be extremely sceptical about when used in psychological experiments). The follow-up on genetics is just as good, revealing that there are hundreds of genetic variations implicated in autism and that many of them are associated with the brain in some way.
There is a also a short discussion of environmental factors (drugs, pesticides etc.). It's short mainly because there's been very little research on the subject.
If I am to be critical of part 1 at all it is that some of the technicalities of both brain anatomy and genetic theory aren't explained in sufficient detail for non-biologists. (My lack of grasp of genetics is an increasing frustration to me; if you know of a good introductory text on the subject please tell me about it!)
Part 2 is not so fabulous and causes a star to be docked. The material is much more personal and is not organised in a very clear fashion. Grandin admits that this has never been her strong suit but her journalist co-author was evidently unable to completely sort out the problem.
There seem to be two main points. The first is advocating research that is based on single symptoms. Instead of taking autistic people and comparing them to neurotypical people, take people with a specific symptom, e.g. extreme hearing sensitivities and compare them with people who don't. One does not necessarily have to be autistic to have such a sensitivity and if you're autistic you won't necessarily have it either. This makes a great deal of sense to me from a scientific stand-point and I hope researchers adopt the approach.
The second main point is to try to see past labels to people and recognise their strengths as well as their weaknesses and that traits are actually neutral and are only strengths or weaknesses in their contexts. Well, I can get behind that but along the way we are treated to some bizarrely self-contradictory opinions.
On the one hand we are told that Grandin was hopeless at geometry and that her teacher should have given up on the subject and taught something else she could do instead e.g. geometry. On the other, we are later subjected to a rant in which Aspies with various difficulties that Grandin doesn't have should essentially "get over it." I find this to be on exactly the same level as telling a depressed person to "pull yourself together" and pretty offensive.
Taking this along with her completely false (and now dropped) assumption that because she is Aspie and she thinks in pictures primarily, all Aspies must think in pictures, what I see is a woman who is very poor at figuring out the level of variation there is in human modes of thought. Assuming everybody sees the world the way you do is, however a very Aspie trait!
September 3, 2016
I didn't know what more Temple Grandin could say about autism, but she's come up with some cutting-edge information and thinking. The book is well organized, thanks (she says) to her co-author.
Grandin really wants to understand everything about autism, and she follows up on things she hears about. This book collects some current findings about the workings of the brain and notes areas slated for future investigation. She is interested in MRI data about brain structure and activity in normal and autistic brains. This data has broader context and implications. It's fascinating how specific regions of the brain control specific ways of perceiving and thinking.
I like that she has realized that all autistic people don't think like her or have her same strengths and weaknesses. She says that autistic people have various combinations of parts of the brain not working "normally" and that in fact, those variations are more extreme versions of variations in how everyone's brains work. By "parts of the brain" I mean the groups of cells in various areas in the various structures of the brain. Okay, I'm paraphrasing broadly, but I think she's saying that and I think that's correct.
The book goes into sensory aspects of autism. I recently read a book about introverts, Quiet by Susan Cain. Cain postulates that introverts are more sensitive to stimuli from birth (or earlier?), and that's why they don't need to engage as much as extroverts. Could this be part of the same spectrum? And of course this would be the result of how the cells work in the parts of the brain that perceive and react to those stimuli.
The book touches on the history of how the psychiatric profession has viewed the causes of autism. I was surprised and delighted to find a couple of quotes from Sigmund Freud saying, basically, that it's likely that in the future, physiology and chemistry will find answers that will "blow away the whole of our artificial structure of hypothesis." (He wasn't talking about autism but still, wow.) It includes a review of the changes in the DSM criteria for diagnosis, which have major effects on whether children on the spectrum have access to resources to help them learn and adapt.
One big point that Grandin makes is an argument for three types of thinkers: visual and verbal (both widely accepted) and pattern thinkers. She goes into detail about each kind of thinking and about how being aware of them can help in the workplace.
I'm not in total agreement with all of Grandin's points. She writes as though teaching manners to children is something that can easily be done. As a vegetarian, I cringe at her "humane" animal slaughter viewpoint (though I am sure that she has made it less inhumane where she's worked). That said, she is logical, sensible, curious, and enthusiastic--a great combination. This is the kind of book that gave me a lot of "Aha!" or "You have to hear this!" moments. Excellent.
Grandin really wants to understand everything about autism, and she follows up on things she hears about. This book collects some current findings about the workings of the brain and notes areas slated for future investigation. She is interested in MRI data about brain structure and activity in normal and autistic brains. This data has broader context and implications. It's fascinating how specific regions of the brain control specific ways of perceiving and thinking.
I like that she has realized that all autistic people don't think like her or have her same strengths and weaknesses. She says that autistic people have various combinations of parts of the brain not working "normally" and that in fact, those variations are more extreme versions of variations in how everyone's brains work. By "parts of the brain" I mean the groups of cells in various areas in the various structures of the brain. Okay, I'm paraphrasing broadly, but I think she's saying that and I think that's correct.
The book goes into sensory aspects of autism. I recently read a book about introverts, Quiet by Susan Cain. Cain postulates that introverts are more sensitive to stimuli from birth (or earlier?), and that's why they don't need to engage as much as extroverts. Could this be part of the same spectrum? And of course this would be the result of how the cells work in the parts of the brain that perceive and react to those stimuli.
The book touches on the history of how the psychiatric profession has viewed the causes of autism. I was surprised and delighted to find a couple of quotes from Sigmund Freud saying, basically, that it's likely that in the future, physiology and chemistry will find answers that will "blow away the whole of our artificial structure of hypothesis." (He wasn't talking about autism but still, wow.) It includes a review of the changes in the DSM criteria for diagnosis, which have major effects on whether children on the spectrum have access to resources to help them learn and adapt.
One big point that Grandin makes is an argument for three types of thinkers: visual and verbal (both widely accepted) and pattern thinkers. She goes into detail about each kind of thinking and about how being aware of them can help in the workplace.
I'm not in total agreement with all of Grandin's points. She writes as though teaching manners to children is something that can easily be done. As a vegetarian, I cringe at her "humane" animal slaughter viewpoint (though I am sure that she has made it less inhumane where she's worked). That said, she is logical, sensible, curious, and enthusiastic--a great combination. This is the kind of book that gave me a lot of "Aha!" or "You have to hear this!" moments. Excellent.
October 19, 2022
More accurate rating: 5/10.
Wow, talk about a condescending, out-of-touch and empathy-less 'Murican "Boomer" take (and I'm pissed I feel obliged to use this word too, but the author whipped the generational argument out first here). Has it ever occurred to the author some of us on the spectrum also struggle with years of compounded trauma and co-morbid mental illnesses? No, apparently if we can't make it in the world, or rather on the job market - because work/a career is the only thing that matters in life, amirite? - we're just whiny and sheltered cry-babies. Okay then.
Just what the hell was that last chapter? It brought the entire book crashing down for me, not that it was amazing until then either. It was decently interesting, with a bit of genetics here, a bit of neuroscience there. Fine. The spiel about there being three different types of thinking was relatively engaging, but ultimately very limited as well, since I'm pretty sure a person could be good at more than one type of thinking, or even all three? Like I'm good at writing, I love literature, I'm very good at drawing and I'm also musically gifted (though I don't like maths, ha!). But I've also studied some biology and am just as sciences-inclined as I am humanities-inclined. So what does that make me? I visualise things very easily, but I also draw connexions between things very easily. So what would that make me in the author's eyes, hmm?
All of that would've been good enough on its own. Hell I don't even disagree with the author's now-considered unpolitically correct take that not everyone can be good at everything; talent or natural aptitude does in fact exist, and should be nurtured. Though I strongly disagree with her obsession with "success": talent plus practice doesn't necessarily equal success, it equals expertise or, more broadly, "topic/skill proficiency". Success correlates with other additional factors, not all of which we have control over as individuals. Still, had the author stopped there, I would've rated this book somewhere between a 6.5/10 and a 7/10.
But as it stands, given the author's very distasteful pseudo-self help tangent, wherein you just have to support your kid's talents to see it thrive, apparently... I just can't rate this book any higher than a mediocre average. Because it didn't work with me, despite my many supposed talents! So maybe you should, in fact, acknowledge your kid's vulnerabilities alongside its strengths to ensure it has access to a healthy, contented life, not just a successful career, for fuck's sake. Consumer capitalism is doing just fine, it doesn't need to have its ego stroked by neurodivergent people as well! 🙄
PS - Just to give an example of the nonsensical BS I encountered at the end of this book:
The actual fuck.
Wow, talk about a condescending, out-of-touch and empathy-less 'Murican "Boomer" take (and I'm pissed I feel obliged to use this word too, but the author whipped the generational argument out first here). Has it ever occurred to the author some of us on the spectrum also struggle with years of compounded trauma and co-morbid mental illnesses? No, apparently if we can't make it in the world, or rather on the job market - because work/a career is the only thing that matters in life, amirite? - we're just whiny and sheltered cry-babies. Okay then.
Just what the hell was that last chapter? It brought the entire book crashing down for me, not that it was amazing until then either. It was decently interesting, with a bit of genetics here, a bit of neuroscience there. Fine. The spiel about there being three different types of thinking was relatively engaging, but ultimately very limited as well, since I'm pretty sure a person could be good at more than one type of thinking, or even all three? Like I'm good at writing, I love literature, I'm very good at drawing and I'm also musically gifted (though I don't like maths, ha!). But I've also studied some biology and am just as sciences-inclined as I am humanities-inclined. So what does that make me? I visualise things very easily, but I also draw connexions between things very easily. So what would that make me in the author's eyes, hmm?
All of that would've been good enough on its own. Hell I don't even disagree with the author's now-considered unpolitically correct take that not everyone can be good at everything; talent or natural aptitude does in fact exist, and should be nurtured. Though I strongly disagree with her obsession with "success": talent plus practice doesn't necessarily equal success, it equals expertise or, more broadly, "topic/skill proficiency". Success correlates with other additional factors, not all of which we have control over as individuals. Still, had the author stopped there, I would've rated this book somewhere between a 6.5/10 and a 7/10.
But as it stands, given the author's very distasteful pseudo-self help tangent, wherein you just have to support your kid's talents to see it thrive, apparently... I just can't rate this book any higher than a mediocre average. Because it didn't work with me, despite my many supposed talents! So maybe you should, in fact, acknowledge your kid's vulnerabilities alongside its strengths to ensure it has access to a healthy, contented life, not just a successful career, for fuck's sake. Consumer capitalism is doing just fine, it doesn't need to have its ego stroked by neurodivergent people as well! 🙄
PS - Just to give an example of the nonsensical BS I encountered at the end of this book:
He was maybe sixty-five years old, and you know what? He was crying. And I thought, Good for him. That's why he was able to reach retirement age working in a job he loved.
The actual fuck.
October 22, 2021
I asked a colleague to recommend a non-threatening introduction to the spectrum of autism, and this proved to be the very thing. It starts and ends on a hopeful note, giving parents many ideas on how to prepare their children for adulthood, work, social interactions.
It falls, to me, somewhere between 3 and 4 stars - it could be a little more comprehensive, probably, a bit less about the author herself (although I value her perspective), and the last section, on education, is a bit inconsistent - Grandin argues that schools should recognize and respect the deficiencies of students who are on the spectrum, instead of pushing them to perform well in areas where it's impossible for them, and yet she is adamant about forcing the kids out of their comfort zone when it comes to social situations (on the other hand, this is a matter of survival, as opposed to learning some branches of mathematics), and gives examples of "laziness", where a student was not interested in a subject enough to write a decent work on it. (In other words, she feels qualified to determine what counts as a deficiency, and what as laziness.)
Next, NeuroTribes.
It falls, to me, somewhere between 3 and 4 stars - it could be a little more comprehensive, probably, a bit less about the author herself (although I value her perspective), and the last section, on education, is a bit inconsistent - Grandin argues that schools should recognize and respect the deficiencies of students who are on the spectrum, instead of pushing them to perform well in areas where it's impossible for them, and yet she is adamant about forcing the kids out of their comfort zone when it comes to social situations (on the other hand, this is a matter of survival, as opposed to learning some branches of mathematics), and gives examples of "laziness", where a student was not interested in a subject enough to write a decent work on it. (In other words, she feels qualified to determine what counts as a deficiency, and what as laziness.)
Next, NeuroTribes.
July 2, 2016
Very good nonfiction look at how thinking about autism has changed as our understanding of neurology and brain chemistry has increased. For me, the second part of the book ("Rethinking the Autistic Brain") was far more interesting and useful than the neurology/brain chemistry first part. Just because people with autism think differently doesn't mean that our thinking is wrong. It's just different. And if researchers develop a "cure" for autism, what will be lost? There's evidence suggesting that people such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo had high-functioning autism, as well as probably Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, etc. That doesn't seem like "wrong" or "broken" thinking to me.
I'm glad that I'm old enough (47) that I made it through the education system as a "weird smart kid" instead of as someone with a disability, and that I learned I could take care of and support myself. All of it was through a pretty non-standard path, which I'm not sure would be an option today. My pattern-matching brain and ability to look at problems in a way that's completely different from the way my coworkers do is valued by the company I've worked for for over 17 years.
I'm glad that I'm old enough (47) that I made it through the education system as a "weird smart kid" instead of as someone with a disability, and that I learned I could take care of and support myself. All of it was through a pretty non-standard path, which I'm not sure would be an option today. My pattern-matching brain and ability to look at problems in a way that's completely different from the way my coworkers do is valued by the company I've worked for for over 17 years.
October 20, 2022
THE AUTISTIC BRAIN reads like a textbook. Each chapter is organized around a specific topic but these chapters are only loosely connected — not linked by an overarching theme, other than that they relate to different facets of autism. Readers lacking a scientific background will probably find some parts of the discussion unintelligible, which is a shame because there are gems in this book that deserve greater prominence.
Chapter 1 recaps Temple Grandin’s personal experience as a person on the autism scale. Today, she would be described as a high-functioning autistic. Early in childhood, she demonstrated symptoms we now associate with autism, but she was simply described as “odd” in 1949-50. She found talking difficult because, as a speech therapist later discovered, she had difficulty hearing consonants — when adults spoke, she heard only vowel sounds. She had a fixation on spinning objects (twirling her fork over her head) and her behaviour was “destructive”. Had she been born to a poor family, she would have been considered “brain-damaged” or “simple-minded”. As her mother had the money to hire a speech therapist and a nanny, she was slowly taught to live in a non-rocking, non-twirling world.
When my grandson turned two, his language development stalled. Whereas my son produced two- and three-word sentences before his second birthday (and my mother always said I was an “early talker”), my grandson stopped speaking coherently after the one-word stage, started having temper tantrums, and rocked for hours on the sofa. I was worried. What little I knew about autism (and I had a PhD in Psychology), was from courses I had taken as a freshman in 1966-67. Autistic children, according to the prevailing doctrine when I studied it, were children who couldn’t form attachments to others. I studied my grandson and saw that this was not true of him; he enjoyed interacting with other people. He simply didn’t have verbal communication skills, and so he communicated via touch. I consulted with a couple of colleagues and they suggested speech therapy. I then suggested speech therapy to his parents, who rejected this. My expectations were unrealistic, they thought. So my grandson continued to verbalize incoherently until he was four, when his mother suddenly realized that his speech was delayed, and enrolled him in a speech therapy class. Within four months, he was speaking normally. The speech therapist spoke slowly to him and got him to “hear” the sounds that he kept mixing up. This is exactly how Temple Grandin learned to speak. My grandson, however, continued to have behaviour problems — mainly hyperactivity — in school. Although his parents took him to doctors, and discussed his problems with school officials, nothing was ever done. The school “couldn’t afford to give him special education training” and, at any rate, didn’t know what was wrong with him, except that he couldn’t sit still.
Chapter 1 discusses the ways in which the criteria for diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have changed over the years, and concludes with the note that in 2012, when the book was being written, 1 in 88 children were now identified as having ASD. By 2012, my grandson had completed his schooling. He never received any assistance because “the school system couldn’t afford to pay for a program designed to meet his needs.” This was after I had insisted that he be given individual psychological testing. The person the school hired to do this testing concluded that he was “below average in intelligence” and arranged to send him to a special school for low-performing students. So he graduated, but he never learned to spell, to write, or to perform mathematical calculations.
He can read, however, although only Stephen King novels. When I was visiting Victoria (before I moved here), I was reading King’s Gunslinger series, and gave him the first two books after I finished them because there was no space in my luggage. He devoured them, when he was nine, and went on to read the rest of the series, and then all the books King had written up to that date. I don’t know why Stephen King’s writings were so easy for him to digest. Possibly because King is highly visual in his descriptions and my grandson has extremely well-developed visual abilities. Unfortunately, when my grandson was 13, he discovered computer games. Since then, he has spent all his leisure time either playing computer games (visual ones where he designs the environment) or watching TV with his father. He works as a clerk, and has no other job ambitions.
Chapter 2 of THE AUTISTIC BRAIN describes Temple’s experiences undergoing MRI and fMRI experiments. What she first noticed was that her brain wasn’t symmetrical — not unusual in itself because most people have asymmetrical brain pathways. After describing many different studies, the chapter comes to the conclusion that the brains of autistic people may form different types of connections — both overcompensate in some areas and under-compensate in others. Although this chapter describes many studies, it doesn’t establish anything except that scientists are still working diligently in this area.
Chapter 3 of THE AUTISTIC BRAIN discusses advances in investigating the DNA of autism and, like Chapter 2, discusses the current state of research but doesn’t reach a conclusion. The only important point that it makes is that the source of autism is genetic, but we have known this since 1977. Autism cannot be traced to just a few gene variations, even though we have known for decades that it is frequently inherited.
Chapter 4 of THE AUTISTIC BRAIN discusses the sensory disorders that people with autism often experience. She also describes interacting with a person with severe autism (as opposed to her high-functioning type) — Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay, who has written a book entitled “How Can I Talk If My Lips Don’t Move?” I hope to read this book someday, as it provides insights into the world of the severely autistic. (Most books written by autistic people have been written by high-functioning autistics like Temple Grandin.). Temple concludes that many autistic people, especially those with severe autism, are bombarded with too much information — sensory overload. High-functioning autistics, like her, can learn to control this sensory overload; low-functioning autistics can not.
Chapter 5 describes today’s criteria for an APA diagnosis — (1) persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction; and (2) restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests, or activities. Of course, these criteria may change when the next DSM (Diagnosis and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) is written.
Chapter 6 is one of the most important chapters, because Temple examines the strengths of autistics and and notes that: ”researchers … have noted over the years that people with autism often pay greater attention to details than neurotypicals. … People with autism are really good at seeing details. They are Bottom-Up Thinkers. … can’t see the forest for the trees.” This is something I concluded over fifteen years ago, when I first became interested in autism.
Chapters 7 and 8 describe, in Temple’s words, her premise that success involves both talent and practice. In her words: ”All the hard work in the world won’t overcome a brain-based deficit … Neuroanatomy isn’t destiny. Neither is genetics. They don’t define who you will be. But they do define who you might be … the autistic brain can build up areas of real strength … we can actually change the brain to help it do whatever it does best.” All autistic people are not the same, Temple concludes, and it is time to stop treating them alike. “I am constantly meeting individuals with Asperger’s or high-functioning autistics who are graduating from high school and college with no job skills. … if we see that being able to see trees before the forest might make someone better at seeing certain kinds of patterns, then we can ask where that skill might be useful.”
When I reflect on my long life, I can see that I have known well at least two autistic people. I probably have met more, but those I am certain about, and I knew them for forty years or longer.
The first I’ll can Stan. Stan was a well-respected psychology researcher when I met him in 1973, but considered eccentric. After fifty years, his research continues to be cited. It was not the type of research that interested me, or that I could even do, because Stan focused on a narrow area of interest. He never asked the big questions; but he solved all the specialized ones in his area of study. But it is not his research that defined him as autistic, although I believe that many researchers who produce similar extensively detailed studies on narrow topics also are probably autistic. I discovered that Stan hated the way his mother had forced him to complete his studies and compelled him to “toe the line” as a child, not allowing him to pursue other issues that caught his fancy. As an adult, Stan broadened his scope to other topics in the real world, but always retained a narrow fixation on whatever took his whim. However, Stan disliked so vehemently the way he had been raised, that he ensured that his only son was raised differently. I met this son when he was 13. At the time, he was a chess master, brilliant in both math and music, and allowed to pursue whatever interested him. He graduated from university at a young age and was accepted into a PhD program, which he never completed. Since then, he has pursued many interests but never held a paying job. Today, he writes diatribes on arcane topics that he publishes online. Stan’s mother knew that he needed discipline in order to realize what he did best; Stan never realized that his son also required firm management to realize his full potential.
The second autistic I knew well I’ll call Jean. I met her in 1952. Jean was not brilliant. In fact, it was only with her mother’s constant persistence that she graduated from high school. But once she graduated, there were few jobs she could fill because most women’s jobs at that time required good writing skills and Jean’s writing skills were extremely poor. Jean was not a typical autistic in terms of her social skills. I often said that her social skills were better than mine — partially because her actions and responses were ingrained into her by her mother. After several mediocre jobs, Jean became an independent housecleaner and she was good at it, so good that she was able to buy a condominium by the time she was fifty. Jean’s problems developed when she was in her late sixties and, being an only child, inherited a substantial sum from her parents. She felt she was rich, and lived accordingly. She stubbornly refused to accept advice offered by those who had been her friends for decades. She knew best. This is typical of autistics who only see the trees and not the forest beyond. Today, at 83, she has little money left, and not even her condominium. Interestingly, Jean told me, many times, that she had wanted to be a mechanic when she was younger but, of course, in those days, women didn’t become mechanics. Also, although her mother was definitely not autistic, it is now plain to me that her father was. He ceaselessly worked on remodelling his house for over fifty years. He also held a repetitious factory job for over fifty years, factory jobs that are no longer available for autistics who love repetitious work.
.
Chapter 1 recaps Temple Grandin’s personal experience as a person on the autism scale. Today, she would be described as a high-functioning autistic. Early in childhood, she demonstrated symptoms we now associate with autism, but she was simply described as “odd” in 1949-50. She found talking difficult because, as a speech therapist later discovered, she had difficulty hearing consonants — when adults spoke, she heard only vowel sounds. She had a fixation on spinning objects (twirling her fork over her head) and her behaviour was “destructive”. Had she been born to a poor family, she would have been considered “brain-damaged” or “simple-minded”. As her mother had the money to hire a speech therapist and a nanny, she was slowly taught to live in a non-rocking, non-twirling world.
When my grandson turned two, his language development stalled. Whereas my son produced two- and three-word sentences before his second birthday (and my mother always said I was an “early talker”), my grandson stopped speaking coherently after the one-word stage, started having temper tantrums, and rocked for hours on the sofa. I was worried. What little I knew about autism (and I had a PhD in Psychology), was from courses I had taken as a freshman in 1966-67. Autistic children, according to the prevailing doctrine when I studied it, were children who couldn’t form attachments to others. I studied my grandson and saw that this was not true of him; he enjoyed interacting with other people. He simply didn’t have verbal communication skills, and so he communicated via touch. I consulted with a couple of colleagues and they suggested speech therapy. I then suggested speech therapy to his parents, who rejected this. My expectations were unrealistic, they thought. So my grandson continued to verbalize incoherently until he was four, when his mother suddenly realized that his speech was delayed, and enrolled him in a speech therapy class. Within four months, he was speaking normally. The speech therapist spoke slowly to him and got him to “hear” the sounds that he kept mixing up. This is exactly how Temple Grandin learned to speak. My grandson, however, continued to have behaviour problems — mainly hyperactivity — in school. Although his parents took him to doctors, and discussed his problems with school officials, nothing was ever done. The school “couldn’t afford to give him special education training” and, at any rate, didn’t know what was wrong with him, except that he couldn’t sit still.
Chapter 1 discusses the ways in which the criteria for diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have changed over the years, and concludes with the note that in 2012, when the book was being written, 1 in 88 children were now identified as having ASD. By 2012, my grandson had completed his schooling. He never received any assistance because “the school system couldn’t afford to pay for a program designed to meet his needs.” This was after I had insisted that he be given individual psychological testing. The person the school hired to do this testing concluded that he was “below average in intelligence” and arranged to send him to a special school for low-performing students. So he graduated, but he never learned to spell, to write, or to perform mathematical calculations.
He can read, however, although only Stephen King novels. When I was visiting Victoria (before I moved here), I was reading King’s Gunslinger series, and gave him the first two books after I finished them because there was no space in my luggage. He devoured them, when he was nine, and went on to read the rest of the series, and then all the books King had written up to that date. I don’t know why Stephen King’s writings were so easy for him to digest. Possibly because King is highly visual in his descriptions and my grandson has extremely well-developed visual abilities. Unfortunately, when my grandson was 13, he discovered computer games. Since then, he has spent all his leisure time either playing computer games (visual ones where he designs the environment) or watching TV with his father. He works as a clerk, and has no other job ambitions.
Chapter 2 of THE AUTISTIC BRAIN describes Temple’s experiences undergoing MRI and fMRI experiments. What she first noticed was that her brain wasn’t symmetrical — not unusual in itself because most people have asymmetrical brain pathways. After describing many different studies, the chapter comes to the conclusion that the brains of autistic people may form different types of connections — both overcompensate in some areas and under-compensate in others. Although this chapter describes many studies, it doesn’t establish anything except that scientists are still working diligently in this area.
Chapter 3 of THE AUTISTIC BRAIN discusses advances in investigating the DNA of autism and, like Chapter 2, discusses the current state of research but doesn’t reach a conclusion. The only important point that it makes is that the source of autism is genetic, but we have known this since 1977. Autism cannot be traced to just a few gene variations, even though we have known for decades that it is frequently inherited.
Chapter 4 of THE AUTISTIC BRAIN discusses the sensory disorders that people with autism often experience. She also describes interacting with a person with severe autism (as opposed to her high-functioning type) — Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay, who has written a book entitled “How Can I Talk If My Lips Don’t Move?” I hope to read this book someday, as it provides insights into the world of the severely autistic. (Most books written by autistic people have been written by high-functioning autistics like Temple Grandin.). Temple concludes that many autistic people, especially those with severe autism, are bombarded with too much information — sensory overload. High-functioning autistics, like her, can learn to control this sensory overload; low-functioning autistics can not.
Chapter 5 describes today’s criteria for an APA diagnosis — (1) persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction; and (2) restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests, or activities. Of course, these criteria may change when the next DSM (Diagnosis and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) is written.
Chapter 6 is one of the most important chapters, because Temple examines the strengths of autistics and and notes that: ”researchers … have noted over the years that people with autism often pay greater attention to details than neurotypicals. … People with autism are really good at seeing details. They are Bottom-Up Thinkers. … can’t see the forest for the trees.” This is something I concluded over fifteen years ago, when I first became interested in autism.
Chapters 7 and 8 describe, in Temple’s words, her premise that success involves both talent and practice. In her words: ”All the hard work in the world won’t overcome a brain-based deficit … Neuroanatomy isn’t destiny. Neither is genetics. They don’t define who you will be. But they do define who you might be … the autistic brain can build up areas of real strength … we can actually change the brain to help it do whatever it does best.” All autistic people are not the same, Temple concludes, and it is time to stop treating them alike. “I am constantly meeting individuals with Asperger’s or high-functioning autistics who are graduating from high school and college with no job skills. … if we see that being able to see trees before the forest might make someone better at seeing certain kinds of patterns, then we can ask where that skill might be useful.”
When I reflect on my long life, I can see that I have known well at least two autistic people. I probably have met more, but those I am certain about, and I knew them for forty years or longer.
The first I’ll can Stan. Stan was a well-respected psychology researcher when I met him in 1973, but considered eccentric. After fifty years, his research continues to be cited. It was not the type of research that interested me, or that I could even do, because Stan focused on a narrow area of interest. He never asked the big questions; but he solved all the specialized ones in his area of study. But it is not his research that defined him as autistic, although I believe that many researchers who produce similar extensively detailed studies on narrow topics also are probably autistic. I discovered that Stan hated the way his mother had forced him to complete his studies and compelled him to “toe the line” as a child, not allowing him to pursue other issues that caught his fancy. As an adult, Stan broadened his scope to other topics in the real world, but always retained a narrow fixation on whatever took his whim. However, Stan disliked so vehemently the way he had been raised, that he ensured that his only son was raised differently. I met this son when he was 13. At the time, he was a chess master, brilliant in both math and music, and allowed to pursue whatever interested him. He graduated from university at a young age and was accepted into a PhD program, which he never completed. Since then, he has pursued many interests but never held a paying job. Today, he writes diatribes on arcane topics that he publishes online. Stan’s mother knew that he needed discipline in order to realize what he did best; Stan never realized that his son also required firm management to realize his full potential.
The second autistic I knew well I’ll call Jean. I met her in 1952. Jean was not brilliant. In fact, it was only with her mother’s constant persistence that she graduated from high school. But once she graduated, there were few jobs she could fill because most women’s jobs at that time required good writing skills and Jean’s writing skills were extremely poor. Jean was not a typical autistic in terms of her social skills. I often said that her social skills were better than mine — partially because her actions and responses were ingrained into her by her mother. After several mediocre jobs, Jean became an independent housecleaner and she was good at it, so good that she was able to buy a condominium by the time she was fifty. Jean’s problems developed when she was in her late sixties and, being an only child, inherited a substantial sum from her parents. She felt she was rich, and lived accordingly. She stubbornly refused to accept advice offered by those who had been her friends for decades. She knew best. This is typical of autistics who only see the trees and not the forest beyond. Today, at 83, she has little money left, and not even her condominium. Interestingly, Jean told me, many times, that she had wanted to be a mechanic when she was younger but, of course, in those days, women didn’t become mechanics. Also, although her mother was definitely not autistic, it is now plain to me that her father was. He ceaselessly worked on remodelling his house for over fifty years. He also held a repetitious factory job for over fifty years, factory jobs that are no longer available for autistics who love repetitious work.
.
January 22, 2020
[LONG REVIEW]
Picked up this book because I'm autistic and I love neuroscience/neurobiology/neuropsychology. It took me a while to read this book. I had a hard time understanding parts of the book. I felt that information wasn't always clearly presented and I had to frequently reread passages, especially in the chapter "Sequencing the Autistic Brain". For context, I have a graduate degree in the mental health field along with a background in biology and human development.
It was also very obvious that the author did NOT speak to any autistic people of color while writing this book. For someone so passionate about autism, the author managed to go the entire book without talking about how race and ethnicity relate to autism diagnosis and access to resources.This became abundantly clear when I read the word "ghettoized" in the chapter "Looking Past the Labels". Although the context is technically correct, the word didn't feel appropriate at all.
I also strongly disagreed with a few points that the author brought up (ex. Being diagnosed or labelled as autistic does NOT result in "handicapped mentality"). When the only messages you get from society about autistic people are negative and unsupportive, autistic people are going to feel hopeless. I also didn't see the point in distinguishing high functioning and low functioning autistic people when the author made such a point to write about how researchers should look at symptoms and rely on self reporting. An autistic person's functioning is just an outsider's perspective, isn't it? Someone may seem "high functioning" in public, but they can just be masking constantly and not be functioning well privately. The author also made the argument that more research should be done to find causes for autism. A majority people in the autistic community do NOT want this. Funneling money into research on the causes of autism is likely to result in using the information for eugenics. Please support research on how to create accessible, supportive services and resources instead.
I was happy to discover some new information about autism and the brain, but it was overshadowed by a lot of the issues I had with the book.
Picked up this book because I'm autistic and I love neuroscience/neurobiology/neuropsychology. It took me a while to read this book. I had a hard time understanding parts of the book. I felt that information wasn't always clearly presented and I had to frequently reread passages, especially in the chapter "Sequencing the Autistic Brain". For context, I have a graduate degree in the mental health field along with a background in biology and human development.
It was also very obvious that the author did NOT speak to any autistic people of color while writing this book. For someone so passionate about autism, the author managed to go the entire book without talking about how race and ethnicity relate to autism diagnosis and access to resources.This became abundantly clear when I read the word "ghettoized" in the chapter "Looking Past the Labels". Although the context is technically correct, the word didn't feel appropriate at all.
I also strongly disagreed with a few points that the author brought up (ex. Being diagnosed or labelled as autistic does NOT result in "handicapped mentality"). When the only messages you get from society about autistic people are negative and unsupportive, autistic people are going to feel hopeless. I also didn't see the point in distinguishing high functioning and low functioning autistic people when the author made such a point to write about how researchers should look at symptoms and rely on self reporting. An autistic person's functioning is just an outsider's perspective, isn't it? Someone may seem "high functioning" in public, but they can just be masking constantly and not be functioning well privately. The author also made the argument that more research should be done to find causes for autism. A majority people in the autistic community do NOT want this. Funneling money into research on the causes of autism is likely to result in using the information for eugenics. Please support research on how to create accessible, supportive services and resources instead.
I was happy to discover some new information about autism and the brain, but it was overshadowed by a lot of the issues I had with the book.
September 14, 2022
dla osób zainteresowanych tematem to będzie świetna lektura. dużo badań i świetnie zestawiona wiedza zawarta w paru "tematach" przewodnich. warta przeczytania dla pozyskania informacji i rozszerzenia jakiegoś względnego oglądu na zagadnienie.
September 11, 2023
I had high hopes for this, but couldn't make it past the second chapter. The author seemed to think that autistic kids that "looked" normal may have been misdiagnosed. Rather than taking the opportunity to educate that there is no "autistic look", she says that there was a typo in the dsm iv that led to many more kids being diagnosed.
They suggest that high rates of diagnosis in poc communities in recent years are suspect (not, in fact, based on the colonisation and racism kept the same communities from having access to diagnostic services).
Then, in the next chapter, she tries to say that MRI scans can detect autism, which we know is false. I didn't even get to the ableist rant about how autistic people are lazy if they don't have a job, and already it pissed me off.
This person is not an expert in any sense, she just happens to be one individual with ASD and just happens to be famous. Nothing worthwhile in here, just more white boomer opinions that have already been disproven.
They suggest that high rates of diagnosis in poc communities in recent years are suspect (not, in fact, based on the colonisation and racism kept the same communities from having access to diagnostic services).
Then, in the next chapter, she tries to say that MRI scans can detect autism, which we know is false. I didn't even get to the ableist rant about how autistic people are lazy if they don't have a job, and already it pissed me off.
This person is not an expert in any sense, she just happens to be one individual with ASD and just happens to be famous. Nothing worthwhile in here, just more white boomer opinions that have already been disproven.
abandoned
April 18, 202518 April 2025
I made it to page 8, and by then I had probably written 16 pages of notes. It's probably better for all of us if leave off permanently.
As with so much of modern life, there seems to be a strong tendency to speak of autism as if it were one thing. It's not. Not only is there a full spectrum of diagnoses, which may reflect different levels of support, but there is a full spectrum of if you will under the spectrum of presentations for each of the criteria. We use "autistic' the way we use "athletic:" we know there are innumerable activities, and a vast range of time commitments both during a given year and over a lifetime, and so on. We use "autistiv" or "athletic" to skip over the hours-long conversation we could have about what fits our definition and go straight to the point we want to make. You can legitimately argue for the inclusion of everything under "sensory issues" or "routine" but let's skip from diagnostic criteria to therapy kinds of supports. And then, 5 minutes into that topic we quit in disgust because you can't talk about support out of context, you have to talk about what works best for 5 year old kids with speech delays who don't want to share in kindergarten, seperately from how to help adults with full time jobs who have trouble making new friends.
What happens is, someone looks at their own life and assumes other lives are the same (doesn't everyone have visual snow? doesn't everyone imagine in photorealistic detail?) or a researcher looks at a small sample of people and sees in unusual interest in train schedules crops up and assumes (everyone who is autistic has a deep interest in trains, rather than, as often seems to be the case, a deep interest in everything.
There isn't one autistic gene, there isn't one autistic brain, there isn't one kind of autistic sensitivity (although tags in shirts seems quite common). A book like this is out of date before the first copies hit the shelves because 8 billion people have a lot of variation, and unless one is systematically documenting things in a very detailed sort of way, no one knows how much this trait on average differs from a neurotypical average, nor how much it differs on average between any other two groups, although it's a safe bet that the ingrown range is greater than the difference between two group averages.
There, see? This is why I couldn't get past page 8. Your mileage will almost certainly differ.
Library copy
I made it to page 8, and by then I had probably written 16 pages of notes. It's probably better for all of us if leave off permanently.
As with so much of modern life, there seems to be a strong tendency to speak of autism as if it were one thing. It's not. Not only is there a full spectrum of diagnoses, which may reflect different levels of support, but there is a full spectrum of if you will under the spectrum of presentations for each of the criteria. We use "autistic' the way we use "athletic:" we know there are innumerable activities, and a vast range of time commitments both during a given year and over a lifetime, and so on. We use "autistiv" or "athletic" to skip over the hours-long conversation we could have about what fits our definition and go straight to the point we want to make. You can legitimately argue for the inclusion of everything under "sensory issues" or "routine" but let's skip from diagnostic criteria to therapy kinds of supports. And then, 5 minutes into that topic we quit in disgust because you can't talk about support out of context, you have to talk about what works best for 5 year old kids with speech delays who don't want to share in kindergarten, seperately from how to help adults with full time jobs who have trouble making new friends.
What happens is, someone looks at their own life and assumes other lives are the same (doesn't everyone have visual snow? doesn't everyone imagine in photorealistic detail?) or a researcher looks at a small sample of people and sees in unusual interest in train schedules crops up and assumes (everyone who is autistic has a deep interest in trains, rather than, as often seems to be the case, a deep interest in everything.
There isn't one autistic gene, there isn't one autistic brain, there isn't one kind of autistic sensitivity (although tags in shirts seems quite common). A book like this is out of date before the first copies hit the shelves because 8 billion people have a lot of variation, and unless one is systematically documenting things in a very detailed sort of way, no one knows how much this trait on average differs from a neurotypical average, nor how much it differs on average between any other two groups, although it's a safe bet that the ingrown range is greater than the difference between two group averages.
There, see? This is why I couldn't get past page 8. Your mileage will almost certainly differ.
Library copy
November 8, 2022
What an amazing woman Temple Grandin is! Her book has been a introduction of this topic, as it isn't one I've studied or (as far as I know) run into in my life. I'm eager to learn more, and so will be looking for more reads on this topic.
This book was refreshing and a bit of a challenge as her sciences are not any place I've ever played and so honestly didn't understand it all. But her stories and experiences shared were helpful and accessible for these old grey cells. Her push against the umbrella diagnosis made sense and her interest in changing up the way children affected by autism and its similar conditions are approached through therapy and education also felt helpful.
It is good to read books that are way above my smarts, and way out of my usual pasture. This book was that, for sure.
This book was refreshing and a bit of a challenge as her sciences are not any place I've ever played and so honestly didn't understand it all. But her stories and experiences shared were helpful and accessible for these old grey cells. Her push against the umbrella diagnosis made sense and her interest in changing up the way children affected by autism and its similar conditions are approached through therapy and education also felt helpful.
It is good to read books that are way above my smarts, and way out of my usual pasture. This book was that, for sure.
April 10, 2018
I first came across Grandin in grad school in 2000 in a class on ethnomethodology. I knew that she was a high functioning autistic woman who came up with a very humane way to slaughter cattle based on her own experience as an autistic person. The cattle were are slaughtered while terrified have worse meat than those who are slaughtered while they are calm. Her machine was akin to the squeeze machine that she designed for herself as a way to calm her tactile oversensory reaction.
The point of bringing up Grandin in ethnomenthodolgy was to think about how we think and how we know what we know. Grandin questions everyone's experience and shows how reality is perceived reality. In this book she frequently distinguishes between the thinking person and the acting person; the autistic might need to act (run around and flap arms) as a reaction to over sensation, but the thinking person is noticing the odd behavior and analyzing it even as he is doing it.
In this more recent summary on autism, Grandin discusses new developments in research and then explores her own previous error: categorizing people as visual vs. word/fact thinkers. She originally qualified all autistics as visual thinkers, but has since re-thought to divide them into pattern or visual or word. The addition of the third category helps to explain some of the differences among the autistic.
I was slightly disappointed, I rather wanted a bit more personal information (I probably should have read her other book for that), but overall feel like I learned more about autism than I had known before. I especially enjoyed the details about the fMRI scans and learning about the differences between people's brain development. Not just the stuff about autistics, but also about the London cabdrivers and the specific examples of the ways in which our brains grow and change to accommodate learning and doing. Grandin does a great job of explaining lots of phenomenon in terms of brain development. We wouldn't expect a 3 ft. tall adult man to ever be able to dunk a basketball; we shouldn't expect someone with an under developed cerebellum to be a tight rope walker.
I was also a bit annoyed with her prescriptive measures for education and employment of autistic people. Not because they were bad suggestions, they weren't. They were quite common sensical and useful suggestions, but because they would apply to anyone. Her ideas about tailoring education to the needs of the child. Great! Fabulous! Let's do it. Of course it is a problem with the education system AT LARGE that it is a one-sized-fits all curriculum. Certainly special education allows kids diagnosed with autism to get adjustments, but shouldn't we allow all kids the focus on learning the way that makes the most sense to them? Why can't we (as a society) arrange our education to be geared toward visual/word/pattern thinkers, rather than forcing square pegs into round holes?
Overall I learned a bit and it is an approachable nonfiction quick read.
The point of bringing up Grandin in ethnomenthodolgy was to think about how we think and how we know what we know. Grandin questions everyone's experience and shows how reality is perceived reality. In this book she frequently distinguishes between the thinking person and the acting person; the autistic might need to act (run around and flap arms) as a reaction to over sensation, but the thinking person is noticing the odd behavior and analyzing it even as he is doing it.
In this more recent summary on autism, Grandin discusses new developments in research and then explores her own previous error: categorizing people as visual vs. word/fact thinkers. She originally qualified all autistics as visual thinkers, but has since re-thought to divide them into pattern or visual or word. The addition of the third category helps to explain some of the differences among the autistic.
I was slightly disappointed, I rather wanted a bit more personal information (I probably should have read her other book for that), but overall feel like I learned more about autism than I had known before. I especially enjoyed the details about the fMRI scans and learning about the differences between people's brain development. Not just the stuff about autistics, but also about the London cabdrivers and the specific examples of the ways in which our brains grow and change to accommodate learning and doing. Grandin does a great job of explaining lots of phenomenon in terms of brain development. We wouldn't expect a 3 ft. tall adult man to ever be able to dunk a basketball; we shouldn't expect someone with an under developed cerebellum to be a tight rope walker.
I was also a bit annoyed with her prescriptive measures for education and employment of autistic people. Not because they were bad suggestions, they weren't. They were quite common sensical and useful suggestions, but because they would apply to anyone. Her ideas about tailoring education to the needs of the child. Great! Fabulous! Let's do it. Of course it is a problem with the education system AT LARGE that it is a one-sized-fits all curriculum. Certainly special education allows kids diagnosed with autism to get adjustments, but shouldn't we allow all kids the focus on learning the way that makes the most sense to them? Why can't we (as a society) arrange our education to be geared toward visual/word/pattern thinkers, rather than forcing square pegs into round holes?
Overall I learned a bit and it is an approachable nonfiction quick read.
June 23, 2020
This book is a delight from start to finish. It doesn't only mention all you need to know about autism but challenges preconceptions and the dangers of labeling but also gives sound advice about how to see the disorder in a positive light. Tenple Grandin is an inspiration to all of us whether autistic or not as she emphasizes the fact that we should look at the talents and abilities in a person and nurture them rather than insist on deficits. She also suggests that today's education system is too unilateral in that it favors the 'word-fact thinkers', leaving so many people feeling they don't fit into the mould. Her idea is that there are more than one way to think: in picture, in words and in patterns, which challenges IQ tests and the way we teach children in school and raise them at home. It's a thought-provoking read which was very well written and I will recommend it anyone who is interested in knowing more about the diversity of brains and their individual thinking processes. Fabulous read!
June 4, 2016
I love Temple Grandin. Her insight is always a treat, she's a great embassador for people who have autism. The most important thing about her angle is that she does not think of her autism as a problem, but as a strength.
June 3, 2016
After I read Eli Gottlieb's Best Boy. I immediately sought out the works of Temple Grandin. Both of my sons are on the autism spectrum and my youngest son is the one who is "classically" autistic and the one I have the most difficulty "figuring out." Gottlieb's autistic narrator made me want to try and understand how my youngest sees the world, and I have often heard that to understand someone you should try to walk a mile in their shoes. But when it comes to my son's autism I have a hard time putting myself in his mindset.
Temple Grandin has walked many miles in my son's shoes and for much longer. And while The Autistic Brain is not the "how-to" guide to my autistic son that I will likely never find, Grandin is able to user her own experience combined with the research she has done on autism to give me a better understanding of how both of my boys operate. Unfortunately for those of us who live with autism on a daily basis, there is no "one-size fits all" approach to autism, but in her efforts to understand her own autism, Grandin has done a ton of research on the topic, often volunteering to be a guinea pig when a new neuro-imaging technology or technique is introduced. She has also turned her autism into one of her great strengths--since she sees the world differently from a neurotypical person, she has been able to force her readers to see things in a different way.
If I have learned a lesson from The Autistic Brain it is that I should stop trying to "figure out" and pigeon-hole my sons. They are dynamics personalities and like all of us have strengths and weaknesses. What I need to do is focus on accentuating their strengths and help them cope with their weaknesses, but don't let those weaknesses define them for others. That would be selling them short, and if there is anything that Temple Grandin is proof of, it's that you don't sell and autistic person short.
Temple Grandin has walked many miles in my son's shoes and for much longer. And while The Autistic Brain is not the "how-to" guide to my autistic son that I will likely never find, Grandin is able to user her own experience combined with the research she has done on autism to give me a better understanding of how both of my boys operate. Unfortunately for those of us who live with autism on a daily basis, there is no "one-size fits all" approach to autism, but in her efforts to understand her own autism, Grandin has done a ton of research on the topic, often volunteering to be a guinea pig when a new neuro-imaging technology or technique is introduced. She has also turned her autism into one of her great strengths--since she sees the world differently from a neurotypical person, she has been able to force her readers to see things in a different way.
If I have learned a lesson from The Autistic Brain it is that I should stop trying to "figure out" and pigeon-hole my sons. They are dynamics personalities and like all of us have strengths and weaknesses. What I need to do is focus on accentuating their strengths and help them cope with their weaknesses, but don't let those weaknesses define them for others. That would be selling them short, and if there is anything that Temple Grandin is proof of, it's that you don't sell and autistic person short.
February 19, 2016
Brilliant. Fascinating look at neurological and genetic studies regarding autism and the need for better MRI and other technologies to achieve accurate diagnoses. This book highlights the problems of DSM diagnoses: that the current autism spectrum is not based on science but relies on subjective interpretation that is constantly changing. Until the science evolves and autistic diagnoses can be consistently traced to specific parts of the brain or specific genes, Grandin recommends diagnosing and treating individual autistic symptoms/traits rather than grouping children together on the spectrum and giving them inaccurate sub-labels designed more for insurance companies than parents and their struggling children. Grandin also recommends using education to identify and expand autistic children's strengths to prepare them for the workforce rather than focusing on "fixing" autistic weaknesses, forcing autistic children to conform to standards where they are marginalized and perform poorly. Grandin describes three brain types - picture thinkers, word-fact thinkers and pattern thinkers - which could help teachers better assess their autistic students and, if used to adapt curricula, could help children develop the skills they need to shine.
June 4, 2023
I was disappointed by 'The Autistic Brain' due to its numerous overgeneralizations. One example is when the author asserts, 'You'll know who these word-fact thinkers are because they'll tell you. Their math skills will be only average, they won't bother with the Legos and building blocks, and they won't be all that interested in drawing.' I found this assumption problematic because it attempts to categorize people into thinking types that supposedly determine their abilities and interests. Personally, as someone who identifies as a 'word-fact thinker,' I still enjoy Legos and excel in math. The strict categorization seems contradictory, especially when the author emphasizes the spectrum nature of autism at the beginning of the book.
Another aspect that troubled me was the author's negative view of the younger generation. She even states, 'It's a generational thing, I suspect. The younger generation doesn't know how to behave.' I struggled to understand the basis for this statement, as the author provides no supporting evidence. Moreover, it appears to be a gross overgeneralization, assuming the behavior of an entire generation without justification.
Another aspect that troubled me was the author's negative view of the younger generation. She even states, 'It's a generational thing, I suspect. The younger generation doesn't know how to behave.' I struggled to understand the basis for this statement, as the author provides no supporting evidence. Moreover, it appears to be a gross overgeneralization, assuming the behavior of an entire generation without justification.
January 13, 2022
As the grandmother of a child who is possibly (not yet diagnosed) on the autism spectrum, this book gave me so much hope. I loved how Grandin focused on the possibilities, how every child has strengths that can be developed and used in a future career.
This was not an easy read. Parts of the book are quite dense and full of science lingo. Other parts are easier to read and deal with The author’s own experiences as a high-functioning autist. I found it very interesting to get inside Grandin’s head and be able to experience what she felt when she was exposed to different stimuli or how her own thought process worked.
This was not an easy read. Parts of the book are quite dense and full of science lingo. Other parts are easier to read and deal with The author’s own experiences as a high-functioning autist. I found it very interesting to get inside Grandin’s head and be able to experience what she felt when she was exposed to different stimuli or how her own thought process worked.
May 6, 2024
Di cosa parla:
- di come le tecniche di neuroimaging hanno messo in evidenza sostanziali differenze tra soggetti di controllo (neurotipici) e soggetti autistici, Temple Grandin – l’autrice del libro – in primis. Davvero molto interessante e anche affascinante. Mi piacerebbe vedere com’è fatto il mio cervello e anche vederlo messo a confronto con persone neurotipiche per eventuali sostanziali differenze.
- della correlazione tra genetica e autismo. È un libro del 2013, da allora sono stati fatti tantissimi passi in avanti, eppure mi sembra che ce ne siano ancora così tanti da fare.
- della sensibilità sensoriale. Molto interessanti le parti sui suggerimenti e i consigli per trovare sollievo da alcuni stimoli sensoriali che ci creano problemi. E non avevo mai pensato al fatto che ci fossero pochissimi studi su questo argomento. Lo trovo anche piuttosto assurdo visto quanto la sensibilità sensoriale possa essere un problema per la vita quotidiana. Probabilmente chi non ha queste difficoltà non ha la minima idea di quanto invalidante sia tutto ciò e quindi non c’è interesse nello studio perché il disagio viene minimizzato o addirittura ignorato.
- etichette e di come queste a volte vadano bene e a volte no. L’idea alla base del capitolo è interessante: studiare il singolo sintomo e in base a quello aiutare il soggetto. In sostanza considerare la singola persona, non un gruppo (più che giusto considerando anche che ogni persona autistica è diversa dall’altra). Io la mia etichetta – anzi, le mie etichette – le ho cercate tanto perché mi hanno permesso di darmi delle risposte, di capirmi e di non sentirmi sbagliata o pazza. Queste etichette fanno parte di me, della mia identità. Al tempo stesso però, oltre a essere quelle etichette, sono consapevole di essere molto di più. Come la Gestalt insegna: “Il tutto è più della somma delle parti”.
- punti di forza delle persone autistiche per esempio l’attenzione per i dettagli o il fatto di essere creativi. Creatività anche intesa in termini di problem solving: vediamo i problemi e le eventuali soluzioni da punti di vista diversi, nuovi, originali.
- riflessioni e studi sul pensare in immagini o in modo verbale o per pattern. Qui secondo me Temple generalizza troppo. Secondo lei si ha un tipo di pensiero e basta. Perché non considerare invece che una stessa persona possa avere due modi di pensare o addirittura tre? Perché non considerare che si possa pensare in immagini in determinate situazioni, in modo verbale in altre, per pattern in altre ancora? o perché non pensare che nello stesso momento si possa usare una combinazione di 2 o tutte e 3 le tipologie di pensiero?
- come lavorare sui punti di forza. Ci sono state delle riflessioni interessanti però ci sono stati anche parecchi commenti abilisti che non mi sono piaciuti per niente. È come se l’autrice non prendesse davvero in considerazione tutte le possibili difficoltà delle persone autistiche. Perché siccome lei è riuscita nella vita ed è realizzata a livello lavorativo allora chi non ce la fa, non ce la fa perché si piange troppo addosso o perché i genitori non hanno insegnato loro a stare al mondo. Parla di come lei già a 9 anni riuscisse a fare determinate cose. Buon per te. Dove la mettiamo in tutto ciò la regressione? Dove lo mettiamo il fatto che in seguito a tutto il masking che tendiamo a fare quotidianamente possiamo andare incontro al burnout autistico e perdere l’autonomia e l’indipendenza che avevamo fino a quel momento? La ignoriamo questa cosa qua? A quanto pare sì.
- di come le tecniche di neuroimaging hanno messo in evidenza sostanziali differenze tra soggetti di controllo (neurotipici) e soggetti autistici, Temple Grandin – l’autrice del libro – in primis. Davvero molto interessante e anche affascinante. Mi piacerebbe vedere com’è fatto il mio cervello e anche vederlo messo a confronto con persone neurotipiche per eventuali sostanziali differenze.
- della correlazione tra genetica e autismo. È un libro del 2013, da allora sono stati fatti tantissimi passi in avanti, eppure mi sembra che ce ne siano ancora così tanti da fare.
- della sensibilità sensoriale. Molto interessanti le parti sui suggerimenti e i consigli per trovare sollievo da alcuni stimoli sensoriali che ci creano problemi. E non avevo mai pensato al fatto che ci fossero pochissimi studi su questo argomento. Lo trovo anche piuttosto assurdo visto quanto la sensibilità sensoriale possa essere un problema per la vita quotidiana. Probabilmente chi non ha queste difficoltà non ha la minima idea di quanto invalidante sia tutto ciò e quindi non c’è interesse nello studio perché il disagio viene minimizzato o addirittura ignorato.
- etichette e di come queste a volte vadano bene e a volte no. L’idea alla base del capitolo è interessante: studiare il singolo sintomo e in base a quello aiutare il soggetto. In sostanza considerare la singola persona, non un gruppo (più che giusto considerando anche che ogni persona autistica è diversa dall’altra). Io la mia etichetta – anzi, le mie etichette – le ho cercate tanto perché mi hanno permesso di darmi delle risposte, di capirmi e di non sentirmi sbagliata o pazza. Queste etichette fanno parte di me, della mia identità. Al tempo stesso però, oltre a essere quelle etichette, sono consapevole di essere molto di più. Come la Gestalt insegna: “Il tutto è più della somma delle parti”.
- punti di forza delle persone autistiche per esempio l’attenzione per i dettagli o il fatto di essere creativi. Creatività anche intesa in termini di problem solving: vediamo i problemi e le eventuali soluzioni da punti di vista diversi, nuovi, originali.
- riflessioni e studi sul pensare in immagini o in modo verbale o per pattern. Qui secondo me Temple generalizza troppo. Secondo lei si ha un tipo di pensiero e basta. Perché non considerare invece che una stessa persona possa avere due modi di pensare o addirittura tre? Perché non considerare che si possa pensare in immagini in determinate situazioni, in modo verbale in altre, per pattern in altre ancora? o perché non pensare che nello stesso momento si possa usare una combinazione di 2 o tutte e 3 le tipologie di pensiero?
- come lavorare sui punti di forza. Ci sono state delle riflessioni interessanti però ci sono stati anche parecchi commenti abilisti che non mi sono piaciuti per niente. È come se l’autrice non prendesse davvero in considerazione tutte le possibili difficoltà delle persone autistiche. Perché siccome lei è riuscita nella vita ed è realizzata a livello lavorativo allora chi non ce la fa, non ce la fa perché si piange troppo addosso o perché i genitori non hanno insegnato loro a stare al mondo. Parla di come lei già a 9 anni riuscisse a fare determinate cose. Buon per te. Dove la mettiamo in tutto ciò la regressione? Dove lo mettiamo il fatto che in seguito a tutto il masking che tendiamo a fare quotidianamente possiamo andare incontro al burnout autistico e perdere l’autonomia e l’indipendenza che avevamo fino a quel momento? La ignoriamo questa cosa qua? A quanto pare sì.
July 10, 2024
Цікаво послухати про аутизм від людини із аутизмом. Тим паче від такої людини, як Темпл Ґрандін. Тепер хочеться подивитися фільм не тільки про неї, а й загалом фільми, котрі створені людьми, що мають аутизм, і загалом цікаво звертати увагу більше на мистецтво й речі створені ними. Шкода лиш, що цій книжці вже 11 років, а за той час, ймовірно, відкрито трохи нових речей, котрі більше проливають світла на аутизм
January 20, 2023
I have very high respect for the author as she continues to share her personal insights and gained knowledge. This is a good read for families of children on the spectrum and adults that may or may not have been diagnosed as being on the spectrum.
April 12, 2022
Overall I enjoyed reading this but it does actually bring up more questions than it actually answers. Mainly it has made me think about stuff I never really thought about before. And that is good. And I did find the majority of the book just fascinating although there was a section that just did not apply to me too well and I found myself not too curious about. But that is autism for you. Select interest.
So in many respects I think my brain must be similar in many ways to the author's - although I certainly never had a brain scan. I have no idea how those are even done. One of those huge machines I guess. But it must be a curious thing to see your own brain on a scan! And I certainly have learned about the different parts of the brain by reading this.
Like Temple, I have great low-light visibility. Often at night it seems the whole sky is glowing and I can see everything in my bedroom. And the window faces a woods so no manmade lights in sight. Yet if I hold my hand up I can see it casting a clear shadow against the bedframe or the wall. I guess my night vision is getting better with age! And I am guessing I must have a large cerebellum while she has a small one as I have excellent balance - but I have never been on skis. I do have a strong fear of falling and of heights, but I never realized this was linked to sensory issues: thought it was just a height phobia my mother gave me by constantly saying "Be careful you don't fall" all the time.
I also share the great long term memory and have problems with the faces & names. Introduce me to a new group of people and it will take me months to remember who is who! Faces just don't stick in my head, especially since I have aphantasia. So basically many of the common issues I have are mentioned in here. Including the sensory things. Listening to background noises all the time. Being startled by sudden unexpected sounds. They often make me jump.
One thing that was new to me was this Irlen syndrome. I never heard of that before! I wonder if this is why years ago before that big shutdown and I would ride the city bus, why the electronic writing at the front of the bus was never clear? I would see double or triple letters. Often overlapping. The letters were in that glowing text. Of course the bus was a loud, crowded place. Odd smells. Perfume. Cooked foods. Etc. The weird thing is my vision is not that way outside walking. I don't see double or triple trees or buildings or birds. So this gives an explanation as to what it could be. Sensory issues. My mother could not stand flickering lights. I do think she had autism too.
So another question this book brought up was about the visual versus word based thinking. As far as I know I am a word based thinker. My memory is in words. I cannot visualize. At all. No mind's eye. Ask me to visualize a red square and I cannot. I don't know how. I only see blackness. Because I have aphantasia. I believe back when she wrote this book aphantasia was not named yet. But... She says that it is visual thinkers that are good with animal training and with photography. I am good at both. In fact last Wednesday I had desensitized a horse to a scary clapper in an hour. And poor Oliver had been terrified of the thing too! But by "thinking outside the box" I had gotten him used to it.
But what does this mean?
I do have an excellent memory for certain movie scenes. Like I can recall all of the details. But I just cannot actually SEE it... So does this in some weird way make me a visual thinker? I have no idea. I certainly excel with horses! Am I using some bizarre workaround to be a visual thinker when I am a memory word based thinker? Is there another undiscovered category of thinker? I have no idea but it is intriguing. And I love playing word association!
And yes, I am bad at math! Horrible at numbers. It took me a year to learn my own phone number!
I do believe each person with autism is unique. We may share a lot of the same characteristics but there are probably countless gene mutations. And I agree with her that most neurotypicals do not understand what is going on inside the mind of someone with autism. I never knew growing up I had autism. I was just diagnosed at 48. Now I am 50.
I also found the names of a few other books in here I can read. I have already ordered one of them from my library.
This was definitely worth the read and very easy to read too...
So in many respects I think my brain must be similar in many ways to the author's - although I certainly never had a brain scan. I have no idea how those are even done. One of those huge machines I guess. But it must be a curious thing to see your own brain on a scan! And I certainly have learned about the different parts of the brain by reading this.
Like Temple, I have great low-light visibility. Often at night it seems the whole sky is glowing and I can see everything in my bedroom. And the window faces a woods so no manmade lights in sight. Yet if I hold my hand up I can see it casting a clear shadow against the bedframe or the wall. I guess my night vision is getting better with age! And I am guessing I must have a large cerebellum while she has a small one as I have excellent balance - but I have never been on skis. I do have a strong fear of falling and of heights, but I never realized this was linked to sensory issues: thought it was just a height phobia my mother gave me by constantly saying "Be careful you don't fall" all the time.
I also share the great long term memory and have problems with the faces & names. Introduce me to a new group of people and it will take me months to remember who is who! Faces just don't stick in my head, especially since I have aphantasia. So basically many of the common issues I have are mentioned in here. Including the sensory things. Listening to background noises all the time. Being startled by sudden unexpected sounds. They often make me jump.
One thing that was new to me was this Irlen syndrome. I never heard of that before! I wonder if this is why years ago before that big shutdown and I would ride the city bus, why the electronic writing at the front of the bus was never clear? I would see double or triple letters. Often overlapping. The letters were in that glowing text. Of course the bus was a loud, crowded place. Odd smells. Perfume. Cooked foods. Etc. The weird thing is my vision is not that way outside walking. I don't see double or triple trees or buildings or birds. So this gives an explanation as to what it could be. Sensory issues. My mother could not stand flickering lights. I do think she had autism too.
So another question this book brought up was about the visual versus word based thinking. As far as I know I am a word based thinker. My memory is in words. I cannot visualize. At all. No mind's eye. Ask me to visualize a red square and I cannot. I don't know how. I only see blackness. Because I have aphantasia. I believe back when she wrote this book aphantasia was not named yet. But... She says that it is visual thinkers that are good with animal training and with photography. I am good at both. In fact last Wednesday I had desensitized a horse to a scary clapper in an hour. And poor Oliver had been terrified of the thing too! But by "thinking outside the box" I had gotten him used to it.
But what does this mean?
I do have an excellent memory for certain movie scenes. Like I can recall all of the details. But I just cannot actually SEE it... So does this in some weird way make me a visual thinker? I have no idea. I certainly excel with horses! Am I using some bizarre workaround to be a visual thinker when I am a memory word based thinker? Is there another undiscovered category of thinker? I have no idea but it is intriguing. And I love playing word association!
And yes, I am bad at math! Horrible at numbers. It took me a year to learn my own phone number!
I do believe each person with autism is unique. We may share a lot of the same characteristics but there are probably countless gene mutations. And I agree with her that most neurotypicals do not understand what is going on inside the mind of someone with autism. I never knew growing up I had autism. I was just diagnosed at 48. Now I am 50.
I also found the names of a few other books in here I can read. I have already ordered one of them from my library.
This was definitely worth the read and very easy to read too...
June 16, 2021
“In the United Kingdom, some of the symptoms of autism would have previously been identified as symptoms of speech/language disorders, and those diagnoses in the 1990s did go down in roughly the same proportion that autism diagnoses went up. In the United States, those same symptoms would have received a diagnosis such as mental retardation, and, again, the number of those diagnoses went down as autism diagnoses went up.”
“Over the decades, I’ve seen hundreds if not thousands of research papers on whether autistics have theory of mind—the ability to imagine oneself looking at the world from someone else’s point of view and have an appropriate emotional response. But I’ve seen far, far fewer studies on sensory problems—probably because they would require researchers to imagine themselves looking at the world through an autistic person’s jumble of neuron misfires. You could say they lack theory of brain.”
“Some researchers, I’m pleased to see, are beginning to recognize the limitations of labels. And they’re beginning to recognize the need for narrower definitions of targets. A 2010 article, “Neuroimaging of Autism,” concluded: “For autism it becomes more and more clear that the possibility to identify one single marker might become very small, just because of the large variability we meet in [this] spectrum. In this view the definition of smaller autism subgroups with very specific characteristics might give a key to further elucidate this complex disease”.
Personally, I would go even further and argue that we need to think not just about smaller autism subgroups that are defined by their symptoms but about the symptoms themselves. Because thinking about individual symptoms on a symptom-by-symptom basis will eventually allow us to think about diagnosis and treatment on a patient-by-patient basis.”
“For example, heart disease and stroke prevention both rely in part on the management of hypertension,” they wrote. “It may well be that ASD and schizophrenia will increasingly be thought of in a similar light”—different behaviors arising from the same genetic source. As a result, Šestan and State anticipated that treatment trials would be organized around “shared mechanisms” rather than “psychiatric diagnostic categories.”
August 7, 2013
I respect Temple Grandin both as a scientist and as an educator. She speaks up with knowledge and authority regarding the humane treatment of livestock, and of the humane education of human beings. I enjoy her writing—her unique personality shines through and adds a validity to what she says. “The Autistic Brain” is much more scientific than her earlier “Thinking in Pictures,” and as such, may be a bit of an information overload for those who aren’t looking for such an in depth education on brain function. I really appreciate the places where she admits that her earlier thinking/writing was incorrect, and shares her updated insights. As one of the foremost authorities on autism, her openness is refreshing and to be highly regarded.
Throughout the book, she pays some of the highest respect and tributes to her mother. I feel that this is a vitally important theme in her book (and her life); especially in this age in which motherhood is regularly denigrated.
If you live with or work with autistic individuals, this book provides a lot of insight.
Throughout the book, she pays some of the highest respect and tributes to her mother. I feel that this is a vitally important theme in her book (and her life); especially in this age in which motherhood is regularly denigrated.
If you live with or work with autistic individuals, this book provides a lot of insight.
June 4, 2016
Fantastic book co-written with another fabulous author, Richard Panek. I had Temple and Richard as guests on my Read Science! google hangout on air. She is a wonderful person whose contributions to us are inummerable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypWZZo...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypWZZo...
April 3, 2020
Miluju ten pocit, když ve správnou chvíli narazíte na správnou knihu.
Víte jednou za čas mě zaujme téma autismu, protože tomu chci rozumět, ale opravdu praktických informací k věci, podaných srozumitelně je jako šafránu. Až Temple Grandinová (a Tony Atwood) mi byli schopní tuto problematiku osvětlit.
Jako vážně, je hafo článků o autismu, ale většina (bohužel hlavně ty objevující se ve známých médiích) na vás akorát hodí pár polonakousnutých faktů a definic a vy stejně rozumíte prd. Proto jsou publikace jako tahle tak cenné a kdyby měl člověk za knihu zaplatit podle hodnoty informací v textu, tak se nikdo nedoplatí.
Nejenže je kniha nabytá znalostmi až k prasknutí, také se velmi dobře čte. Paní Grandinová jak skvěle rozumí tomu, co chce předat dál, tak to také umí skvěle podat.
Víte jednou za čas mě zaujme téma autismu, protože tomu chci rozumět, ale opravdu praktických informací k věci, podaných srozumitelně je jako šafránu. Až Temple Grandinová (a Tony Atwood) mi byli schopní tuto problematiku osvětlit.
Jako vážně, je hafo článků o autismu, ale většina (bohužel hlavně ty objevující se ve známých médiích) na vás akorát hodí pár polonakousnutých faktů a definic a vy stejně rozumíte prd. Proto jsou publikace jako tahle tak cenné a kdyby měl člověk za knihu zaplatit podle hodnoty informací v textu, tak se nikdo nedoplatí.
Nejenže je kniha nabytá znalostmi až k prasknutí, také se velmi dobře čte. Paní Grandinová jak skvěle rozumí tomu, co chce předat dál, tak to také umí skvěle podat.
February 1, 2022
This book took me a while to read but that was due more to my deficiencies than to any lack in the book. Ms. Grandin is a scientist, so she uses big words and terminology that tend to go over my head.
But the last half of the book was full of incredibly useful information on how to understand the autistic brain and how to integrate an autistic child into mainstream society.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who has frequent contact with someone on the autistic spectrum, or who just wants to be prepared. "Love that neighbor" becomes so much easier when we're able to see past the differences to the beauty beneath.
But the last half of the book was full of incredibly useful information on how to understand the autistic brain and how to integrate an autistic child into mainstream society.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who has frequent contact with someone on the autistic spectrum, or who just wants to be prepared. "Love that neighbor" becomes so much easier when we're able to see past the differences to the beauty beneath.
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