Customer Reviews

Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition: My Life with Autism

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is absolutely amazing. I have 2 children with Asperger's and Temple Grandin's insight into why people with autism have certain behaviors was eye-opening. It also gave me a whole new perspective on what thought processes may effect their ability to learn abstract things and socialize with others. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. Even if you don't personally know someone with autism it can certainly give you a first-hand look at how different people think differently.

I have a 6-year-old autistic son. Though we love him tremendously, my wife and I have struggled greatly in raising him. This breakthrough book has helped us approach our interactions with him in a more effective manner. It also sheds precious insight into the autistic world for any curious or thoughtful person with an interest to know more. Thank you Temple Grandin for your remarkable achievements in life, which give us great hope for our son. And thank for giving us invaluable perspective on autism. You have blessed the lives of countless people.

Whether you know anyone with Asperger's or not, this book will enlighten and expand your thinking about how minds work and what it means to be human. As in most areas, most people assume that other people think and perceive the same way that they do, and that this is the "only right way to do it." But when everyone thinks the same way, break-through thinking is almost impossible.

Reading this book I wondered if, without the awe-inspiring differences, we would have ever moved out of mud huts. It seems to me that the lessons stretch far beyond what it means to have Aspergers, although learning what that means is an incredible gift.

We need to treat our differences with awe, wonder and respect and recognize how people who are "differently wired" have helped to shape our world.

Thinking in Pictures, by Temple Grandin (page cites)
Emergence: Labeled Autistic, by Temple Grandin
The Way I See It, by Temple Grandin

These are excellent books for anyone dealing with autistic people. Temple Grandin, Ph.D. describes her own autism in Thinking in Pictures, with her brain's profound difference from other people's. Oliver Sacks, the brilliant neurologist, says "Temple does not romanticize autism, nor does she downplay how much her autism has cut her off " from others (xviii). For her words are a second language; basically her perceptions, her understanding of the world is in pictures. Emergence is devoted to her early childhood while Thinking concentrates more on her adult life. She used her faculties successfully and now one-third of cattle and hogs in the United States are processed in systems she has designed. To design this equipment, Temple uses her special visual thinking abilities to examine blue-print simulations three-dimensionally. She can run images over and over in her head, from different angles, to study them and improve their design.

After talking with hundreds of families and individuals with autism or Asperger's, Temple has come to see three basic categories of specialized brains: visual thinkers, music and math (or pattern) thinkers, and verbal logic thinkers, and recommends that there be more educational emphasis on building the strengths of each individual rather than trying to repair deficits. Each group brings its own strengths. After briefly describing her own early childhood behavior, Temple notes that within each brain pattern category there are different levels of ability, from high performing to savant, from Asperger's to Kanner-type autism.

Temple stresses that autism has both a cognitive and sensory component depending on the wiring of that child's brain. Thus these will differ in each child. Consequently the expression of autism is different in each child and it is impossible to predict from the severity of the symptoms at age two or three a long-term prognosis (48). She believes the highly variable volatility of autism is due to the interaction of multiple genes (54), and training and education should be tailored to the individual child. Emergence stresses this point and the last chapter, Autistics and the Real World, lists a series of factors that a parent or caretaker should consider for each child diagnosed as autistic. In The Way I See It, Dr. Grandin emphasizes that parents and teachers should not focus on the diagnostic label, but encourage the child to reach his or her highest potential. She believes that many brilliant contributors to society from Jefferson to Einstein were on the Asperger's continuum. It is interesting that in her earliest book, Emergence, Grandin talks of `reformed' or `recovered' autistics, a label that she definitely drops in her later works. Rather she emphasizes their positive interactions over the image of damaged or failed people. In The Way I See It, Grandin moves further away from the `damaged' concept to showing how autistics bring special skills and abilities. She reinforces how to be a successful autistic person by learning life skills and finding a job or hobby that matches the autistic's skills.

I read this by book by some chance but page after page it became like a mirror to me. And it was really a great shock. I agree totally with the others comments and Temple Grandin give us a more deeper view about autistic continuum. Before I believed I was a total social idiot. But every words she use are incredibly close to my way of thinking and my own history as we say in medical terms. And this book became an open door to another level in my life.
This book is helpful for a lot of people especially for parents and teachers who to confront to childs in autistic continuum. And I will be always grateful to Temple Grandin for this book. The worst thing for an high functioning autist is to be closed in his world. Knowing why you are different won't cure you but the balance of your mind is restored.

This book is an incredibly insightful view into the world of autism and animals. I've read a few books written by autistic authors just because I am extremely curious of neurological conditions that drastically alter one's perception and experience of the world and Temple Grandin being a highly intelligent and sensitive person is able to articulate her world with great detail and poetry.

It always scares me about thinking about our children's future, what will happen to them if we die, if we didn't help them to become an independent individual, what about their personal relationships, if they will be abused -both physical and emotionally when we were not with them.
This book doesn't erase our fears, this book opens our eyes to see WHAT DO WE HAVE TO DO to help them, and give us hope... not just ideas but specific examples of what to do.
It was hard for me to read this also because it goes deep about autism and genetics... It is very hard to accept that my husband and I gave our wonderful child the "bad genes".
Once you get over the guilt, this book helps you to understand that along with autism, there goes a lot of "genius" genes.
this book is a must.

Dr. Grandin lectures on animal husbandry as well as autism. I've seen her speak in person. She's a very interesting individual. Her way of speaking comes through in the book. She writes very well for the layman.

She covers her career, her interests, and her autism. If you are interested in animal husbandry, interesting women, autism, then this is a good book. If you have autistic kids and feel really under it, its very reassuring to see how this one autistic person has done very well for herself, thanks to early intervention by her parents as well as determination and intelligence on her part.

I also like her personally, because I have had mixed feelings about being an omnivore and am glad she's out there making the experience of animals in our food production a lot less harrowing.

A friend recommendeded this book for me. I hesitated for a while before buying it - but once picked up I can't put it down. The book brings me to scope of thinkings that is beyond my imagination. I can't wait to recommend this book to my friends even before I have finished it for the first time. I've now re-read this for two to three times, and each time my mind was further enlightened. Sometimes I give away books after reading but this will be a copy I will keep and read over and over again.

As a college professor with a Ph.D., I think in words and have had trouble connecting and communicating with my autistic daughter. This book has allowed me to cross over into my daughters world and better understand how she thinks in pictures. It has helped to redefine our communication and changed my life and our relationship.