The Autistic Brain: Helping Different Kinds of Minds Succeed

One of the best books if not THE BEST books on different kinds of thinking. Temple Grandin writes many good books!

This book discusses some fascinating developments in understanding Autism Spectrum Disorder from a neurological / biological standpoint (while at the same time stressing that there’s a lot more research needed). Some parts early in are bogged down with statistics and hard to take in, but I loved that Grandin explored the science of autism / autistic traits, which I think is key to understanding and accepting behavior from a biological standpoint instead of seeing it a someone’s “fault.”Using her own experience and scientific research, Grandin also offers lots of practical insights on how different people think, as well as how people with autism can not only be accommodated (autism as a disorder / disability with certain deficits) but also be appreciated (autism as the capability for unique and useful thinking approaches).A good read for people who wish to start understanding autism.

I've been avoiding Temple Grandin's books for years, all because of the title of her book, Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism. With that book, I thought, "All autistic people can't think in pictures. Autistic people have to be like regular people, and be divided into visual, auditory, and kinesthetic people." Plus, I thought, "Even though I'm extremely visual, I couldn't hold a picture in my brain if my life depended on it. I'm not like those artists who can see pictures of what they draw before they draw it." But, I bought the book anyway, because so many people seem to have liked Temple's books.And then, in the introduction, page 3, Temple had written this: "When I wrote Thinking in Pictures in 1995, I mistakenly thought that everybody on the autism spectrum was a photorealistic visual thinker like me. When I started interviewing other people about how they recalled information, I realized I was wrong."Wow. Temple became my hero for life, and she did it by page 3. Not only did she completely address my every issue that I ever had with her writing, but she explained it in a way that I totally understood where she was coming from when she guessed that all autistic people think in pictures over a decade ago. And, later in the book, she gives an explanation for someone who thinks visually like me, but who can't hold a picture in their head. It's "pattern thinker," and I really like that term, because it really describes me. And it takes a lot of courage to say, "I was wrong." Most people can't even utter those three words, so it gave me a lot of respect for Temple Grandin. I still think that eventually Temple will find some autistic kinesthetic thinkers, too, but that's not in this book.And, this book is awesome. Temple is obsessed about finding out what about her brain and her personality differs from other people. She has offered herself up to many brain scans, and she's read thousands of technical articles about autism as research. Because of this unique combination, this book provides a unique take on autism that you won't find anywhere else, and it also explains boring, overly critical university research on autism in a friendly and uplifting way.I liked how this book recommends that we match autistic kids' abilities with activities. A lot of autistic kids are really underutilized in their strengths. Here's one way the book expresses it: "I've seen these cases--kids who are considered to have severe behavior problems at school until you give them math lessons that meet them where their brains are. Then their behavior normalizes, and they become productive and engaged--maybe even model students."It gives a lot of techniques that I've never heard of too. One was blinking fast, so that you get a bunch of pictures in your head, instead of a steady stream of information. That can help with sensitivities. Another was wearing different shades of glasses, using different colored lights, or setting the background on your computer screen to different colors, until you find the colors or the shades that best complement your brain.This is the first book that I've read from Temple, but it definitely won't be my last. I loved this book, and heartily recommend it to everyone.Pros:+A great first read on autism, or even a great twentieth book+Takes antiseptic, critical research on autism and presents it in a non-depressing way+A great narrative about Temple GRandin's life+Has good information on what you can try to help with autism sensitiviesCons:-Like all books currently on autism, this is probably incomplete

Loved the book (as I do all of Temple's work). As a mother with two boys on the spectrum, I always appreciate the insight I get from Temple and other writers with ASD who can explain how they think and what it feels like to be in their bodies. Things I really liked about this book: the wealth of research that she pulls together for her readers(especially the neuroimaging studies)and the positive approach she takes towards raising and educating these special thinkers (ie. focusing on their strengths instead of constantly focusing on their deficits). I also like the fact that Temple really emphasizes the importance of the sensory differences in people with ASD as opposed to neurotypicals - I've come to the conclusion after watching my own boys that this may be the most debilitating issue for many who appear "low functioning". I'm not sure that I completely agree that there are only three main types of thinkers who have ASD - object visualizers, spacial or pattern visualizers and verbal thinkers. Again, watching my two boys (one 19 and one 7), I don't see any clear indication that either fits neatly into one of those categories. While I suspect my 19 year old is most likely a visual thinker, I can't classify my seven year old. Aside from sensory issues, his biggest deficit appears to be severe apraxia (difficulty with motor planning). He's non-verbal (not surprising because of the apraxia) and he struggles with both fine and gross motor skills. Apraxia seems to be a BIG issue with many on the spectrum (Ido in Autismland by Ido Kedar is a terrific book by a young man with ASD who is apraxic and just had trouble "telling" his body what to do). Temple addresses ALOT of great issues in her book - but this is never touched upon and I found it a pretty big omission. When some people with ASD who are assumed to be low functioning (because they are non-verbal and have alot of stereotypies) learn how to type or otherwise communicate, we learn that they are, in fact, not mentally handicapped and have always been "there"; they just couldn't control their bodies in a way that allowed the rest of us to know it. That's my seven year old. I'd love to know what the neuroimaging studies could tell us about that! While I think that most on the spectrum suffer from some degree of apraxia, there appears to be another subset of people who suffer from it SEVERELY. How many ASD suffers are warehoused someplace with the label of "low functioning" when all along they've been aware of everything going on around them but can't control their bodies at all? I think it's great that we focus on high functioning people and make sure that they have an opportunity to live up to their absolute greatest potential. But . . . I think we are doing a disservice to those we are considering "low functioning" by not studying them in greater detail and doing more research focused on sensory and motor problems.