temple-grandin Quotes About autism

Inspirational Knowledge Autism Autism Spectrum

“I cannot emphasize enough the importance of a good teacher.”

Enough Teacher Importance Be Good Autism Good Teacher Best Teacher

“Mild autism can give you a genius like Einstein. If you have severe autism, you could remain nonverbal. You don't want people to be on the severe end of the spectrum. But if you got rid of all the autism genetics, you wouldn't have science or art. All you would have is a bunch of social 'yak yaks.'”

People Ifs Want Giving Art Ends Social Genius Bunch Autism Severe Spectrum Genetics Autistic Nonverbal Yaks

Author:Temple Grandin

“Normal people have an incredible lack of empathy. They have good emotional empathy, but they don't have much empathy for the autistic kid who is screaming at the baseball game because he can't stand the sensory overload. Or the autistic kid having a meltdown in the school cafeteria because there's too much stimulation.”

“I'm a visual thinker, not a language-based thinker. My brain is like Google Images.”

Language Brain Visuals Thinker Autism Google Sensory Yaks

Author:Temple Grandin

“Who do you think made the first stone spears? The Asperger guy. If you were to get rid of all the autism genetics, there would be no more Silicon Valley.”

Ifs Thinking Firsts Made Inspiration Would Be Motivation Guy Stones Valleys Autism Genetics Spears Silicon Silicon Valley Aspergers

Author:Temple Grandin

“Autism is a neurological disorder. It's not caused by bad parenting. It's caused by, you know, abnormal development in the brain. The emotional circuits in the brain are abnormal. And there also are differences in the white matter, which is the brain's computer cables that hook up the different brain departments.”

“If you start using a medication in a person with autism, you should see an obvious improvement in behavior in a short period of time. If you do not see an obvious improvement, they probably should not be taking the stuff. It is that simple.”

Ifs Should Persons Stuff Simple Periods Behavior Obvious Improvement Autism Medication

Author:Temple Grandin

“If you have autism in the family history, you still vaccinate. Delay it a bit, space them out.”

Ifs Stills Bits Space Autism Delay Family History Yaks

Author:Temple Grandin

“There tends to be a lot of autism around the tech centers... when you concentrate the geeks, you're concentrating the autism genetics.”

Autism Geek Genetics Concentrating Yaks

Author:Temple Grandin

“Autism is an extremely variable disorder.”

Disorder Autism Variables

Author:Temple Grandin

“Autism is part of who I am.”

Who I Am Autism

Author:Temple Grandin

“When you take a drug to treat high blood pressure or diabetes, you have an objective test to measure blood pressure and the amount of sugar in the blood. It is straight-forward. With autism, you are looking for changes in behavior.”

Blood Amount Drug Behavior Tests Treats Pressure Objectives Sugar Autism Diabetes Blood Pressure High Blood Pressure

Author:Temple Grandin

“I am also a believer in an integrated treatment approach to autism.”

Approach Believer Treatment Autism Integrated

Author:Temple Grandin

“I had people in my life who didn't give up on me: my mother, my aunt, my science teacher. I had one-on-one speech therapy. I had a nanny who spent all day playing turn-taking games with me.”

People Giving Mother Turns Games Teacher Speech Giving Up Therapy Autism Aunt One On One Nannies Science Teacher Yaks Speech Therapy

Author:Temple Grandin

“I can explain how a person with autism thinks. I am very, very interested in how people think. It's been a gradual process of learning more and more about how my thinking process is different. You know it's bottom up - you take specific examples to make concepts and then I put them in categories.”

People Thinking Knows Persons I Can Different Process Example Concepts Bottom Categories Autism Learning More Thinking Process

Author:Temple Grandin

“Lets get into talking about how autism is similar animal behavior. The thing is I dont think in a language, and animals dont think in a language. Its sensory based thinking, thinking in pictures, thinking in smells, thinking in touches. Its putting these sensory based memories into categories.”

Thinking Language Memories Animal Talking Behavior Smell Categories Autism Sensory Animal Behavior

Author:Temple Grandin

“People talk about curing autism. But if you got rid of all those traits, who's going to make the next computer?”

People Ifs Next Computer Traits Autism

Author:Temple Grandin

“I think a brain can be made "more thinking" or made "more emotional." At what point does this become abnormal? Autism in its milder variants, I think, is part of normal human variation.”

Thinking Humans Doe Made Brain Emotional Normal Autism Variation Abnormal

Author:Temple Grandin

“From a scientific standpoint, Aspergers and autism are one syndrome. Aspergers is part of the autism spectrum, not a separate disorder.”

Disorder Autism Spectrum Standpoint Syndromes Aspergers

Author:Temple Grandin

“Autism's a very big spectrum. At one end of the spectrum, Einstein would probably be labeled autistic, Steve Jobs, half of Silicon Valley, you know, Van Gogh. And at the other end of the spectrum, you got much more severe handicaps where they never learn to speak.”

Knows Ends Bigs Jobs Speak Half Valleys Autism Severe Vans Spectrum Autistic Silicon Handicaps Silicon Valley

Author:Temple Grandin

“One of the places where research is needed is all the sensory problems. And you get sensory problems not just with autism, but with dyslexia, learning problems, ADHD, attention deficit, you know, things like sound sensitivity, problems with fluorescent lighting.”

Knows Problem Sound Attention Needed Research Autism Sensitivity Deficit Lighting Sensory Adhd Dyslexia

Author:Temple Grandin

“I was nonverbal until I was four years old. Back in the 50s, I was the kind of kid they used to just put away in an institution. But then you get the milder autism where there's no speech delay, but they're socially awkward. Those kids were around when I was a child. They were just called geeks and nerds.”

Years Kind Children Kids Used Four Speech Institutions Four Years Awkward Autism Delay Nerd Geek Nonverbal Socially Awkward

Author:Temple Grandin

“Half of Silicon Valley's got a little bit of autism.”

Littles Bits Half Little Bit Valleys Autism Silicon Silicon Valley

Author:Temple Grandin

“In fact, there are autism clusters, you know, around some of the big tech centers. You take two socially awkward computer programmers and put them together, that can kind of concentrate the autistic genes.”

Knows Kind Two Facts Bigs Together Computer Genes Awkward Autism Programmers Autistic Computer Programmers Clusters Socially Awkward

Author:Temple Grandin

“You take somebody - one person has definitely got autism, you got another person that maybe has some of those traits and maybe there's some anxiety, depression, some epilepsy or something in the family history. Put them together, you're more likely to have a severely autistic kid than if you don't have any neurological problems in the family history.”

Ifs Persons Problem Kids Together Anxiety Traits Autism Autistic Family History Epilepsy Anxiety Depression

Author:Temple Grandin

“I think that the definition of autism is too broad. You got to remember, autism definition is a behavioral profiling.”

Thinking Remember Definitions Broads Autism

Author:Temple Grandin

“These diagnostic profiles like depression, ADHD, autism, dyslexia, it's half science and the other half is a committee of doctors bickering over what it should be, and it has changed. It's not precise like a diagnosis of tuberculosis would be very precise.”

Should Would Be Half Changed Doctors Autism Committees Precise Diagnosis Profile Other Half Adhd Bickering Dyslexia Tuberculosis

Author:Temple Grandin

“I'm seeing too many kids where they get fixated on their own autism. I'd rather have them get fixated that they like programming computers or they like art or they want to sing in the church choir or they want to train dogs, you know, something that they can turn into a career.”

Knows Want Art Kids Turns Church Careers Seeing Dog Computer Train Programming Autism Choir Church Choir

Author:Temple Grandin

“Autism's an important part of who I am, but I'm a college professor and an animal scientist first. And I wouldn't want to change 'cause I like the logical way I think.”

Thinking Way Want Firsts Important Causes Animal College Scientist Who I Am Logical Professors Autism College Professors

Author:Temple Grandin

“My life - autism's an important part of it, but it bothers me when I see kids where autism and their autism is the only thing they think about. I'd rather have them think about, you know, some art work they were gonna do or some science they wanted to do.”

Thinking Knows Art Important Kids Wanted Bother Autism

Author:Temple Grandin

“Autism is a big continuum, going from someone who remains nonverbal, all the way up to geniuses on Silicon Valley. And some kids are visual thinkers like me. Other kids are pattern thinkers - your mathematicians, your programmers. And there are others, they are word thinkers. Uneven skills. You need to take the thing that they're good at and you need to work on developing it.”

Way Needs Bigs Kids Genius Skills Remains Patterns Like Me Developing Visuals Thinker Valleys Autism Mathematician Programmers Silicon Silicon Valley Continuum Nonverbal

Author:Temple Grandin

“The thing is, autism is a big spectrum. Going from folks who remain nonverbal, all the way up to, ya know, famous scientists and musicians. And we've got to work on strengths. We also have to work on teaching basic manners and skills.”

Knows Way Bigs Teaching Skills Musician Scientist Folks Manners Autism Spectrum Nonverbal

Author:Temple Grandin

“Some autistic people have savant skills. All autistic people do not have savant skills. Autism is a very variable disorder varying all the way from Einstein, emollient scientist, just a little bit of the trait, many scientist and engineers, down to somebody that's going to remain nonverbal.”

People Way Littles Bits Skills Little Bit Scientist Disorder Traits Engineers Autism Variables Autistic Nonverbal Savants Scientists And Engineers

Author:Temple Grandin

“There is a small segment of people with autism that have savant skills, where they can memorize entire maps of whole entire city. They can do calendar calculations. And this is similar to some of the skills that animals have.”

People Whole Can Do Animal Cities Skills Maps Autism Calculations Calendars Savants

Author:Temple Grandin

“There's no black and white dividing line between a mild Aspergers, which is the mild autism, and computer engineer, for example.”

Black Lines White Example Computer Engineers Black And White Autism Dividing Aspergers

Author:Temple Grandin

“People with autism aren't interested in social chit-chat.”

People Social Autism Chit Chat

Author:Temple Grandin

“I've got my one area I work in and I want to educate people about autism and I also want to improve, you know, animal handling and transport and make a real change out in the field on the ground.”

People Knows Want Real Animal Fields Areas Educate Autism Transport Real Change

Author:Temple Grandin

“The thing is, autism is all different, you know, variables. And you start out with a certain amount of, you know, the point where the differences in the brain are going to just be a personality variant and, like, for very mild Asperger's. But you get into more severe kinds of autism where there's obvious speech delay, obvious abnormal behavior in a two and three-year-old child, you know, the initial neurology is different from case to case. But all children with autism are going to do better if they get really good educational intervention.”

“One thing I'd like to just keep on doing is I want to educate people about animal behavior and about autism. I've been doing autism talks for the last 20 years and there still are people out there that do not want to, they can't recognize that these sensory problems are real. That, for some of these kids when that fire alarm goes off, that really hurts the ears, it's a really real thing.”

People Want Years Stills Real Problem Kids Lasts Hurt Animal Fire One Thing Behavior Ears Educate Autism Alarms Real Things Sensory Animal Behavior

Author:Temple Grandin

“I look at the successful people that have, you know, high functioning autism and Asperger's, they're ones where maybe the parents were in the computer industry and they just taught the kids programming at, you know, age eight and nine and they just went on into the industry with their parents.”

People Knows Looks Kids Age Parent Successful Taught Industry Computer Eight Nine Programming Successful People Autism Aspergers

Author:Temple Grandin

“People on the autism spectrum don't think the same way you do. In my life, people who made a difference were those who didn't see labels, who believed in building on what was there. These were people who didn't try to drag me into their world, but came into mine instead.”

People Thinking World Way Trying Made Differences Building Mines Labels Drag Autism Spectrum

Author:Temple Grandin

“When I was diagnosed, mothers were blamed for causing autism. There was no autism support. They'd put autistic kids in institutions. I had severe autism. But my mom wouldn't accept that. I was put in speech therapy. My mother was always pushing me to do stuff.”

Kids Mother Stuff Accepting Support Mom Speech Institutions My Mom Therapy Pushing Autism Severe Autistic Speech Therapy

Author:Temple Grandin

“One area of study that still needs to be done is the kind of autism where kids have speech and they lose it. Some parents say it's happened right after vaccines. That group needs to be studied separately from others.”

Needs Kind Stills Done Kids Parent Loses Study Happened Groups Speech Areas Autism Vaccines

Author:Temple Grandin

“In an ideal world the scientist should find a method to prevent the most severe forms of autism but allow the milder forms to survive. After all, the really social people did not invent the first stone spear. It was probably invented by an Aspie who chipped away at rocks while the other people socialized around the campfire. Without autism traits we might still be living in caves.”

People World Should Firsts Stills Might Form Social Rocks Ideals Stones Scientist Method Traits Autism Severe Caves Spears Campfire Ideal World

Book:Thinking in Pictures

Source: Thinking in Pictures

“I believe there is a reason such as autism, severe manic-depression, and schizophrenia remain in our gene pool even though there is much suffering as a result.”

Believe Reason Suffering I Believe Results Pool Genes Autism Severe Schizophrenia Manic Manic Depression

Book:Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition: My Life with Autism

Source: Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition: My Life with Autism

“But my favorite of Einstein's words on religion is "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." I like this because both science and religion are needed to answer life's great questions.”

Answers Needed Blind My Favorite Autism Science And Religion Lame

Book:Thinking in Pictures

Source: Thinking in Pictures

“I am different, not less”

Different Inspiring Autism

Author:Temple Grandin

“You simply cannot tell other people they are stupid, even if they really are stupid.”

People Ifs Stupid Autism

Book:The Way I See it: A Personal Look at Autism & Asperger's

Source: The Way I See it: A Personal Look at Autism & Asperger's

“What would happen if the autism gene was eliminated from the gene pool? You would have a bunch of people standing around in a cave, chatting and socializing and not getting anything done.”

People Ifs Done Happens Standing Bunch Pool Genes Autism Caves Autistic Socializing Aspergers Chatting

Author:Temple Grandin

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