Temple Grandin - Conversations from Penn State

Temple Grandin, one of the most internationally recognized autistics and a renowned expert in animal science talks about her life with autism and its influence on her work. She also discusses the new HBO movie based on her autobiography. Buy the DVD here: http://soar.ois.psu.edu/cgi-bin/WebOb...

• Category

  People & Blogs

[karenofbethany]

I've been watching a lot of intereviews with Temple. In this one, she seems the most calm and relaxed, has the most eye contact. I feel sure it is because this interviewer is calm, relaxed, interested, non-show biz, totally sees Temple as an interesting person, NOT an autistic person. As if they are equals. In the other interviews, she is more "on display".

[mountainmover15]

As an educator I find that many children think differently and often are relegated to the outskirts of life in general. What we need to do is learn how others learn differently and bring out the skills of the primary learning style while encouraging young children to explore and learn how to activate secondary learning styles. Temple grandlin is an example of how people learn differently, overcome challenges and become a world class thinker.

[Monica17N]

Yes, I'm very visual, but not in the learning sense, know what I mean? It's not my PRIMARY way of thinking and learning. As I'm writing this comment, I'm not seeing pictures to go with the words but I'm running a movie in my head that's totally different from what I'm writing, but as you can see my writing is detailed and so is the movie running in my head. I think that my comorbid ADHD has the visual thinking. Which explains why I suck at geometry but love artwork, design, and animation

[rayray695]

I want to meet her! I have heard from others who have met her that she is sometimes unresponsive until she hears something that interests her personally, such as an engineering occupation.

[rayray695]

Interesting. A lot of people are a combination, anyway, but different degrees are more common than others, such as most of the general population would be considered verbal thinkers with moderate visual thinking abilities. Temple talks about how most NTs get "vague pictures" in their heads while she gets very specific pictures that are as good as actual photos. They also almost always have a "running narrative" in their head which many people I've met with ASD don't have. Do you?

[Monica17N]

I met her about a month ago! I went to her conference and she was FANTASTIC. I was asking her a couple questions, but some of them she didn't respond to... until I mentioned that my fiance is an engineer and she lit up. I asked her what book would be good for an engineer who is learning about Autism. Instantly as I said "engineer" she referred me to her book "Thinking In Pictures" :) so I got an autographed copy

[Monica17N]

Then that wouldn't be me cause I enjoy connecting concepts, but I also hate step by step instructions. I'm fine with memorizing facts and collecting information, it's my hobby to categorize and organize information that I've learned, studied, or enjoyed and organize it in written or list form. But my visual thinking is sort of separated from my word thinking. Either it's one or the other

[rayray695]

Verbal thinkers seem to grasp information that is given in an instructional manner. They don't conjure pictures in their head- oftentimes it is difficult for them to create a "mental image" of a thing or concept if they cannot actually see it in front of them. If they needed directions to a destination, they would prefer step instructions, such as "turn right, then drive 2 blocks, then turn left" as opposed to a map or a list of landmarks. Better at gathering facts than connecting concepts.

[Glen Lincoln]

What a great lady, Temple, and an intelligent, thougtful intervierwer, thank you

[Ciera Corca]

Very nice talk, but it is DSM V, not DMS.

[jessica sa]

I love her spirit as a person. I also loved the HBO movie on her. Shes such a interesting person. As a mother with a child on the ASD I'd love to have spoken to her mother. To have gotten a mothers point of view. Especially in a time autism wasnt ever talked about. Her parents were very educated people and they knew their daughter had potiental and gave her the ability to be her in her way. Bravo to them!

[elgueroaero]

Her explanations are awesome :)