Temple Grandin Visual Thinking - Different Kinds Of Thinkers (Thoughty Auti Podcast)

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How far has Autism come in 50 years? Is the shift in focus GOOD or BAD for Autistic adults?

Professor Temple Grandin is a renowned author, speaker and Autism advocate who has and still is changing the cattle industry

In this episode of the Thoughty Auti Podcast, Thomas Henley talks to Temple about his experience of Autism advocacy in the modern day, comparing it against Temples own experiences in the past

Kicking off the chat, they talk all about recent events in the media - touching briefly on Temples book 'Thinking In Pictures', her movie, and the more recent publications like 'Different NOT Less'.

Getting down into the meat of the episode, they chat about how the focus of Temples childhood was on manners, following work and developing hobbies... vastly different from the modern day focus on language, stimming, self-advocacy and identity

The professor explains she has substituted 'Emotional Complexity' with 'Intellectual Complexity' and the two theorize over the impact of work and relationships in overall Quality Of Life.

In the modern day, advocacy is done through social media platforms, and Temple highlights that this change has been difficult and potentially damaging for the autistic community (Thin Slice Judgements come to mind).

Ending the episode, they chat about positives and negatives to modern day advocacy, reminiscing on the shared difficulties on navigating the language and social landscapes.

Temple's Links:-
Twitter - @DrTempleGrandin

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[ElaineWalker]

I can't do algebra.. it looks like scrambled ants to me.. no patience for it. But I have three (almost five) published math papers, because I can "see" it. I close my eyes and I can see the math we're working on as topology, geometry, etc. I have done thousands of drawings on my computer, discovering all kinds of new angles on our area of math that we work on. My math partner does the algebra and I do the visualizing, drawing, conjecturing.. Both of my parents were math professors, and until I was 50 years old I didn't think doing math was an option. Now I work on it almost every day, for many hours.

[woodsprout]

I love this conversation! I think a lot of people don't give Temple Grandin enough credit for ALSO learning more about autism over the years. But first she had to take care of and learn about herself.

[erickpty]

Thanks. 55 years later I learned I am not an anomaly. I'm the kind of person who needs to visualize to understand the words I hear.

[stuarttacey]

You must be doing well to get an interview with Temple Grandin mate, well done! 😀

[everpee]

I think I am both word and visual thinker

[quiettornado]

I know I'm a visual thinker cause I find a string of verbal communication very hard to follow. For me in order to remember a name I have to associate it to a visual thing. In order for me to remember Temple Grandin name, I had to associate it with a "In Grand Temple" then the word "In Grand" would visually swap places in my mind like a video to "Grandin". once that swap in my mind "Grandin" would swap places with the picture of a Temple. that is how I remember people's name.

[tweetlebugzz]

This is absolutely me! I can't do math, but I can design anything. I didn't finish college because I couldn't do the math. So I got eliminated from doing what I was meant to do because of unnecessary school requirements.

[thetruthstrangerthanfictio]

I love all the talk about what kind of brain high functioning autistic (HFA) people have to determine what career path is best. I have HFA and have a brain somewhere between the visual and the mathematical and am good at coming up with experiments to test scientific hypotheses. I am skeptical of computer models because I prefer tangible evidence from the real world rather than a simulation on a computer because the model can be wrong. However, I think there also needs to be a discussion on what kind of immune system autistic people have. The reason is lots of autistic people have MCAS or a hyperfunctioning immune system that causes fatigue, asthma, and fluctuating cognitive symptoms. I myself have that problem and it is much more disabling than my autism. People with MCAS should stay away from gluten, grains, beans, dairy, lectins, alcohol, and possibly even tomatoes, eggplants, and potatoes. I am considering an elimination diet for that reason. The condition is associated with genes that make people less susceptible to infections but their immune system tends to over-react.

[EricAllenGriff]

Wow. Lifelong revealing/acknowledging/uhm.. Words will take some time to form... .