The world needs all kinds of minds - Temple Grandin

Summary

Temple Grandin, an expert in autism and animal behavior, explains how autism manifests along a spectrum, from nonverbal individuals to brilliant minds like Einstein and Tesla. She emphasizes the importance of hands-on education, practical skills, and nurturing diverse thinking styles, especially visual thinkers. Through her experiences, Grandin discusses how understanding autism can lead to innovative breakthroughs in fields like engineering and design. She also highlights the need for mentors and early intervention in fostering the talents of autistic individuals, helping them contribute meaningfully to society.

Takeaways

• 🧠 Autism exists on a wide spectrum, ranging from nonverbal individuals to highly gifted scientists and engineers.
• 🔍 Autistic individuals tend to focus on details that others might overlook, which is advantageous in fields like engineering and design.
• 🎨 Autistic people often think in pictures, with visual thinkers processing the world differently than verbal thinkers.
• 🔧 The autistic mind often excels in hands-on tasks and detailed work, making contributions in fields like design and engineering invaluable.
• 🐮 Temple Grandin used her visual thinking to improve livestock handling, noticing details that others missed, such as the impact of shadows and movement on cattle behavior.
• 🎥 Visual thinking helped Grandin design livestock handling systems, allowing her to test equipment in her mind like virtual reality.
• 💡 There are different types of autistic thinkers: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers (engineers), and verbal thinkers, each with unique strengths.
• 👨‍🏫 Mentorship and hands-on teaching are crucial for developing autistic children’s talents and interests, especially in areas like science and technology.
• 👩‍🔧 Autistic people may struggle with certain social skills but can excel in technical fields with proper support and opportunities.
• 🌎 Grandin emphasizes the importance of integrating different kinds of minds into society to solve future challenges, especially in technology and innovation.

Q & A

What is autism, according to the speaker?

Autism is described as a continuum that ranges from very severe cases, where a child might be nonverbal, to highly capable individuals like brilliant scientists and engineers. It involves a wide spectrum of traits.

How does the autistic mind differ in processing details compared to a neurotypical mind?

The autistic mind tends to focus on details, whereas a neurotypical mind tends to ignore them. This attention to detail can be crucial in tasks that require precision, like building machinery.

What is 'thinking in pictures,' and how does it relate to the speaker's work?

Thinking in pictures means visualizing concepts as images rather than using verbal language. The speaker, Temple Grandin, explains how she uses this ability to design livestock handling systems, essentially running 'mental simulations' of equipment.

What concern does the speaker express about modern education systems?

The speaker is concerned that hands-on classes, such as art and shop classes, are being removed from schools. She believes this deprives children, especially those with different cognitive strengths, of the chance to excel in areas where they could thrive.

How does the speaker describe the importance of visual thinking in animal behavior research?

Visual thinking helps the speaker notice details others might miss, such as small environmental changes that could affect cattle behavior. For example, she noticed how a flag waving near a facility made cattle balk.

What are the different types of minds mentioned, and how do they contribute to society?

The speaker categorizes minds into visual thinkers, pattern thinkers (who excel in math and engineering), and verbal thinkers. Each type has specific strengths, and society needs all these minds to work together.

What role did the speaker's science teacher play in her development?

The speaker's science teacher, Dr. Carlock, played a pivotal role by encouraging her to engage with interesting problems, such as optical illusions. This mentor helped ignite her passion for science, which led to her successful career.

What does the speaker say about sensory issues in individuals with autism?

Sensory issues can vary widely among individuals with autism. Some may be sensitive to fluorescent lights, while others might have sound sensitivity. These sensitivities can affect how they experience and interact with the world.

What is the speaker’s view on the importance of hands-on experience for autistic children?

The speaker emphasizes the importance of hands-on experience, especially in areas that align with a child's interests. By channeling their fixations into productive activities, children can learn essential skills and find meaningful careers.

How does the speaker believe society should approach the future of autistic individuals?

Society should focus on developing the strengths of autistic individuals, especially in areas like science and technology. This includes providing mentorship, fostering their interests, and integrating them into industries like software and engineering.

Outlines

00:00

🤖 Understanding Autism and Different Ways of Thinking

The speaker introduces the concept of autism as a broad spectrum, ranging from nonverbal individuals to highly skilled scientists and engineers. They discuss how historical figures like Einstein, Mozart, and Tesla might have been diagnosed with autism today. A major focus is on helping autistic individuals thrive in areas like invention and engineering. The speaker emphasizes the importance of visual thinking, which is common in autism, and highlights the challenges posed by a shift away from hands-on activities in education.

05:00

🎨 Visual Thinkers and the Power of Sensory Detail

The speaker explains their personal experience as a visual thinker, describing how they think in pictures rather than language. They discuss how this type of thinking has benefited their work, especially in designing cattle handling facilities. The speaker emphasizes the importance of details and how the autistic brain focuses on these. They also mention that not all autistic individuals are visual thinkers, highlighting differences in thinking styles within the spectrum.

10:03

🧠 Exploring Different Types of Thinkers

This section delves into various kinds of thinkers: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers (often engineers or programmers), and verbal thinkers. The speaker shares their experience with brain scans that reveal a stronger connection to visual processing in autistic people. They also discuss how sensory issues affect individuals on the spectrum, explaining that different autistic minds excel in distinct areas, like music, math, or patterns.

15:04

👩‍🏫 The Importance of Mentors and Hands-on Learning

The speaker shares their personal experience with mentors, specifically a science teacher who sparked their interest in learning. They stress the need for mentors to engage autistic children by focusing on their specific interests, using examples from their own life, such as learning through shared activities like horseback riding and building things. They argue that education should nurture the unique strengths of autistic individuals and mention that many schools have removed hands-on classes that benefit these students.

Keywords

💡Autism Spectrum

Autism is presented as a continuum of traits ranging from severe nonverbal autism to highly functional individuals who excel in areas like science and engineering. The speaker emphasizes that individuals like Einstein, Mozart, and Tesla might be considered part of the autism spectrum today.

💡Visual Thinking

Visual thinking refers to thinking in images or pictures rather than words. Temple Grandin describes her thought process as similar to 'Google for Images,' where specific images quickly flash through her mind. This type of thinking allowed her to excel in designing cattle handling facilities.

💡Sensory Sensitivity

People on the autism spectrum often experience heightened sensitivity to sensory stimuli such as sounds, lights, and textures. In the script, Grandin mentions being concerned about the discomfort of wearing a microphone and how some children struggle with issues like fluorescent lights.

💡Specialist Mind

The concept of a specialist mind refers to the tendency of individuals on the autism spectrum to excel in one area while struggling in others. Grandin explains that some autistic minds are excellent visual thinkers, while others may excel in pattern recognition or mathematical thinking.

💡Pattern Thinker

Pattern thinkers are individuals who excel in abstract thinking, often relating to fields like engineering, computer programming, and math. Grandin contrasts pattern thinkers with visual thinkers and notes that many pattern thinkers are skilled in areas like origami or software design.

💡Categories

Grandin explains how both animals and autistic individuals categorize sensory-based information. For example, cattle may react differently to a man on horseback compared to a man on foot. This categorization is also used to describe how her mind breaks down problems into smaller, manageable parts.

💡Animal Mind

The animal mind, like that of autistic individuals, processes the world through sensory details such as sights, sounds, and smells. Grandin draws parallels between how animals and people with autism think, focusing on their shared attention to detail and sensory information.

💡Mentorship

Grandin emphasizes the importance of mentorship in helping autistic individuals succeed. She attributes her success to a science teacher who challenged her thinking and believes that mentors, especially in fields like science and technology, can help turn a child's fixations into productive skills.

💡Hands-on Learning

Grandin advocates for hands-on learning experiences, such as art, drafting, and shop classes, as critical for developing the talents of children on the autism spectrum. She laments the removal of these classes from schools, stating that they helped her and other visual thinkers excel.

💡Fixations

Fixations, or intense interests in specific subjects, are common among people on the autism spectrum. Grandin suggests using these fixations as a motivational tool to teach other skills. For example, a child interested in race cars could be taught math through calculating the speed and distance of cars.

Highlights

Autism is a continuum, from nonverbal individuals to brilliant scientists and engineers.

Einstein, Mozart, and Tesla would likely be diagnosed on the autism spectrum today.

Autistic minds tend to focus on details, which can be beneficial in tasks like building or designing.

Temple Grandin shares her experience of thinking in pictures, describing it as 'Google for images.'

Hands-on work is essential for many autistic children, but schools are removing these opportunities.

Visual thinkers can test-run equipment in their minds, similar to virtual reality.

There are different types of thinkers: visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, and verbal minds.

Temple emphasizes the need for different kinds of minds working together for future innovation.

Early intervention for young autistic children is critical, involving at least 20 hours a week of one-on-one teaching.

Social interaction for autistic children can be developed through shared interests.

Autistic individuals, though not always expressive in traditional ways, can be extremely loyal.

Mentorship is key in helping autistic individuals find their passion and develop skills.

Specific, clear instructions are necessary when assigning tasks to individuals on the spectrum.

Temple’s work in improving slaughterhouse conditions by focusing on outcomes has made a real-world impact.

Data centers and server farms excite Temple as they represent great libraries of knowledge.

Transcripts

I think I'll start out and just talk a

little bit about what exactly autism is

autism is a very big continuum that goes

from very severe the child remains

nonverbal all the way up to brilliant

scientists and engineers and I actually

feel at home here because it's a lot of

autism genetics here you wouldn't have

any it's a continuum of traits when does

a nerd turn into you know Asperger which

is just mild autism

I mean Einstein and Mozart and Tesla

would all be probably diagnosed as

autistic spectrum today and one of the

things that really is going to concern

me is getting these kids to to be the

ones that are going to invent the next

two energy things now that Bill Gates

talked about this morning okay

now if you want to understand autism

animals and I want to talk to you about

different ways of thinking you have to

get away from verbal language I think in

pictures I don't think in language now

the thing about the autistic mind is it

attends to details okay this is a test

where you either have to pick out the

big letters or pick out the little

letters and the autistic mind picks out

the little letters more quickly and the

thing is the normal brain ignores the

details well if you're building a fridge

details are pretty important because

I'll fall down if you ignore the details

and one of my big concerns is a lot of

policy things today is things are

getting too abstract people are getting

away from doing hands-on stuff I'm

really concerned that a lot of the

schools have taken out the hands-on

classes because art and classes like

that those are the classes where I

accept okay in my work with cattle I

noticed a lot of little things that most

people don't notice would make the

cattle book like for example is flag

waving right in front of the veterinary

facility this feed yard was going to

tear down their whole veterinary

facility all they needed to do was move

the flag rapid movement contrast in the

early 70s when I started I got right

down in the chutes to see what cattle

were seeing people thought that was

crazy a code on offense would make em

block shadows would make them bark a

whole

was on the floor people weren't noticing

these things a chain hanging down and

that's shown very very nicely in the

movie in fact I loved the movie how they

duplicated all my projects

that's the geek side my drawings got the

star in the movie too and actually it's

called Temple Grandin not thinking in

pictures so what is thinking in pictures

it's literally movies in your hat my

mind works like Google for Images now

when I was a young kid I didn't know my

thinking was different I thought

everybody thought in pictures and then

when I did my book thinking in pictures

I started interviewing people about how

they think you know shocked to find out

that my thinking was quite different

like if I say think about a church

steeple most people get this sort of

generalized generic one now maybe that's

not true in this room but it's going to

be true in a lot of different places

I see only specific pictures they flash

up into my memory just like Google for

pictures and in the movie they've got a

great scene in there where the word shoe

is said in a whole bunch of 50s and 60s

shoes pop into my imagination okay

there's my childhood Church that's

specific there's some more Fort Collins

okay how about famous ones and they just

kind of come up kind of like this just

really quickly like Google for pictures

and they come up one at a time and then

I think well okay well maybe we can have

it snow or we can have a thunderstorm I

can hold it there and turn them into

videos now visual thinking was a

tremendous asset in my work designing

cattle handling facilities and I've

worked really hard on improving on how

cattle are treated at slaughter plant

I'm not going to go into any gucky

slaughter slides I've got that stuff up

on YouTube if you want to look at it but

one of the things that I was able to do

in my design work is I could actually

test run a piece of equipment in my mind

just like a virtual reality computer

system and this is an aerial view of a

recreation of one of my projects that

was used in the movie that was like just

so super cool and there were a lot of

kind of Asperger types and I had autism

types working out there on the movie set

too but one of the things that really

worries me is where's the younger

version of those kids going today

they're not ending up in Silicon Valley

where they belong

now one of the things I learned very

early on because I wasn't that social is

I had to sell my work and not myself and

the way I sold livestock jobs as I

showed off my drawings I showed off

pictures of things another thing that

helped me as a little kid is boy in the

50s you were taught manners you were

taught you can't pull the merchandise

off the shelves in a store and throw it

around now when kids get to be in third

or fourth grade you might see that this

kid's gonna be a visual thinker drawing

in perspective now I want to emphasize

that not every autistic kids going to be

a visual thinker now I did the head this

brain scan done several years ago and I

used to joke around about having a

gigantic internet trunk line going a

deep into my visual cortex

this is tensor imaging and my great big

internet trunk line is twice as big as

the controls the red lines there are me

and the blue lines are the sex and age

matched control and there I got a

gigantic one and the control over there

the blue one has got a really small one

and some of the research now is showing

that people on the spectrum actually

think with primary visual cortex now the

thing is the visual thinker is just one

kind of mind you see the autistic mind

tends to be a specialist mind good at

one thing they added something else and

when I was bad with algebra and I was

never allowed to take geometry or trig

gigantic mistake I'm finding a lot of

kids that need to skip algebra go right

to geometry and trick now another kind

of mind is the pattern thinker more

abstract these are your engineers your

computer programmers now this is pattern

thinking that praying mantis is made

from a single sheet of paper

no scotch tape no cuts and there in the

background is the pattern for folding it

here are the types of thinking

photorealistic visual thinkers like me

pattern thinkers music and math minds

some of these oftentimes have problems

with reading you also will see these

kind of problems with them kids that are

dyslexic you'll see these different

kinds of minds and then there's a verbal

mind they know every fact about

everything now

another thing is the sensory issues I

was really concerned about having to

wear this gadget on my face and I came

in half an hour beforehand so I could

have it put on and kind of get used to

it and like they got it bent so it's not

hitting my chin but sensory is an issue

some kids are bothered by fluorescent

lights others have problems with sound

sensitivity you know on it's going to be

variable now visual thinking gave me a

whole lot of insight into the animal

mind because think about it an animal's

a sensory based think are not verbal

thinks in pictures thinks and sounds

thinks and smells think about how much

information there is there on the local

fire hydrant he knows who's been there

when they were there are they friend or

foe

is there anybody they'll mate with

there's a ton of information on that

fire hydrant it's all very detailed

information and looking at these kind of

details gave me a lot of insight into

animals now the animal mind and also my

mind puts sensory-based information into

categories man on a horse and a man on

the ground that is viewed as two totally

different things you can have a horse

that's been abused by a rider they'll be

absolutely fine with the veterinarian

and with a horse sure but you can't ride

you have another horse where maybe the

horseshoer beat them up and he'll be

terrible for anything on the ground or

the veterinarian but a person can ride

them cattle are the same way man on a

horse a man on foot there are two

different things

you see it's a different picture see I

want you to think about just how

specific this is now this ability to put

information into categories I find a lot

of people are not very good at this like

when I'm out troubleshooting with

equipment or problems with something in

a plant they don't seem to be able to

figure out do I have a training people

issue or do I have something wrong with

the equipment

in other words categorizing equipment

problem from a people problem I find a

lot of people have difficulty doing that

now let's say I figure out is an

equipment problem is it a minor problem

with something simple I can fix or is a

whole design of the system wrong people

have a hard time figuring

that out let's just look at something

like you know solving problems with

y'all making airlines safer yeah I'm a

million-mile flyer I do lots and lots of

flying and then you know like if I was

at the FFA what would I be doing a lot

of direct observation of it would be

their airplane tails you know five fatal

wrecks in the last 20 years tail either

came off or coasteering stuff inside the

tail broke in some way its tails

pure and simple and when the pilots walk

around the plane guess what they can't

see that stuff inside the tail you know

now as I think about that I'm pulling up

all of that you know specific

information it's specific see my

thinking's bottom up I take all the

little pieces and I put the pieces

together like a puzzle now here's a

horse that was deathly afraid of black

cowboy hats you've been abused by

somebody with a black cowboy hat white

cowboy hats that was absolutely fine now

the thing is the world is going to need

all of the different kinds of minds to

work together we've got to work on

developing all these different kinds of

minds and one of the things that's

driving me really crazy so I travel

around than I do

autism meetings is I'm seeing a lot of

smart geeky nerdy kids and they just

aren't very social and nobody's working

on developing their interest in

something like science this brings up

the whole thing on my science teacher my

science teacher has shown absolutely

beautifully in the movie as a goof ball

student when I was in high school I just

didn't care at all about studying until

I had on mr. carlock's science class

he was now dr. Carlock in the movie and

he he got me challenged to figure out an

optical illusion room this brings up the

whole thing he got to show kids

interesting stuff you know one of the

things that I think maybe Ted ought to

do is done tell all the schools about

all the great lectures that are on Ted

there's all kinds of great stuff on the

Internet to get these kids turned on

because I'm seeing a lot of these geeky

nerdy kids and the teachers out in the

Midwest and other parts of the country

when you get away from these tech areas

they don't know they do with these kids

and they're not going down the right

path the thing is you can make a mind to

be more of a thinking and cognitive mind

or a mind can be wired to be more social

and what some of the research now is

showing autism is there may be extra

wiring back here and then really

brilliant mine and we lose a few social

circuits here it's kind of a trade-off

between thinking and social and then you

can get into the point where it's so

severe you're going to have a person

that's going to be nonverbal in the

normal human mind language covers up the

visual thinking we share with animals

this is the work of dr. Bruce Miller and

he studied alzheimerís patients they had

frontal temporal lobe dementia and the

dementia ate out the language parts of

the brain and then this artwork came out

of somebody that used to install stereos

and cars now van Gogh doesn't know

anything about physics but I think it's

very interesting that there was some

work done to show that this Eddy pattern

and his painting followed a statistical

model of turbulence this brings up a

whole interesting idea of maybe some of

this mathematical patterns is in our own

head and the Wolfram stuff I was taking

notes I was write down all the all the

search words I could use because I think

that's going to go on in my autism

lectures we've got a show these kids to

interesting stuff and they've taken out

the auto shop class and the drafting

class in the art class I mean art was my

best subject in school we've got to

think about all these different kinds of

minds and we've got to absolutely work

with these kind of minds because we

absolutely are going to need these kind

of people in the future and let's talk

about jobs okay my science teacher got

me studying because I was a goofball it

didn't want to study but you know what I

was getting work experience I'm seeing

too many these smart kids that haven't

learned basic things like how to be on

time I was taught that when I was eight

years old you know how to have table

manners at Granny's at Sunday party I

was taught that when I was very very

young and when I was 13 I had a job at a

dressmakers shop by selling clothes I

did internships in college I did I was

building things

and I also had to learn how to do

assignments you know all I want to do is

draw pictures the horses when I was

little mother said well let's do a

picture of something else they got to

learn how to do something else let's say

the kids fixated on leg

let's get them working on building

different things

think about the autistic mind as it

tends to be fixated like if the kid

loves race cars let's use race cars for

math let's figure out how long it takes

a racecar to go a certain distance in

other words use that fixation in order

to motivate that kid that's one of the

things we need to do and really get fed

up when the you know the teachers when

especially when you get away from this

part of the country they don't know what

to do with these smart kids it just

drives me crazy

what can visual thinkers do when they

grow up they can do graphic design all

kinds of stuff with computers

photography Industrial Design on the

pattern thinkers they're the ones that

are going to be your mathematicians your

software engineers your computer

programmers all of those kinds of jobs

and then you've got the word minds they

make great journalists and they're also

make really really good stage actors

because the thing about being autistic

is I had to learn social skills like

being in a play it just kind of just

have to learn it and we need to be

working with these students and this

brings up mentors you know my science

teacher was not an accredited teacher he

was a NASA space scientist now some

states now are getting it to where if

you have a degree in biology or degree

in chemistry you can come into the

school and teach you know biology or

chemistry we need to be doing that

because what I'm observing is the good

teachers for a lot of these kids are out

in the community colleges but we need to

be getting some of these good teachers

into the high schools another thing that

can be very very very successful is

there's a lot of people that may have

retired from you know working in the

software industry and they can teach a

kid and it doesn't matter if what they

teach them is old because what you're

doing is you're lighting the spark you

get nected turned on and you get them

turned on then you'll learn all the new

stuff mentors are just essential I can't

emphasize enough what my science teacher

did for me and we've got to mentor them

hire them and if you bring them in for

internships and your company's the thing

about the autism Asperger II kind of

mine you got to give a specific task

don't just say design new software

you're going to tell them something a

lot more

specific well we're designing a software

for phone and it has to do some specific

thing and it can only use so much memory

that's the kind of specificity you need

well that's the end of my talk and I

just want to thank everybody for coming

it was great to be here

oh yeah question for me okay thank you

thank you so much for that you know you

once wrote I like this quote if by some

magic autism had been eradicated from

the face of the earth then men would

still be socializing in front of a wood

fire at the entrance to a cave hey guys

who do you think made the first stone

spear Jose Asperger guy and if you were

to get rid of all the autism genetic

said they know more Silicon Valley and

the energy crisis would not be solved

someone shot you a couple of the

questions and you know if any of these

feel inappropriate it's okay to say next

question but if if there's someone here

who has an autistic child or knows an

autistic child and feels kind of cut off

from them what advice would you give

them well first of all I got a look at

age if you have a two three or four year

old you know no speech no social

interaction I can't emphasize enough

don't wait you need to at least 20 hours

a week of one-to-one teaching you know

thing as autism comes in different

degrees there's going about half the

people on the spectrum that are not

going to learn the talk and they're not

gonna be working in Silicon Valley that

would that would not be a reasonable

thing for them to do but then you got

these smart geeky kids you know the

touch of autism and that's where you've

got to get them turned on with doing

interesting things I got social

interaction through shared interests I

rode horses with other kids I made model

rockets with other kids did electronics

lab you know without the kids and then

60s it was gluing mirrors on the under

rubber membrane on speaker to make a

light shell that was like we can serve

that super cool look is it unrealistic

for them to hope or think that that

child loves them as some might most well

let me tell you that child will be loyal

if the house is burning down they're

gonna get you out of it Wow

so most people if you ask them what are

they most passionate about that say

things like my kids or or my lover or

what are you most passionate about I'm

passionate about that the things I do

are going to make the world a better

place when I have a mother of an

autistic child say my kid went to

college because of your book or

something or wanting our lectures that

makes me happy you know like the

slaughter plants I've worked with them

in the 80s they were absolutely awful

I developed a really simple

scoring system for slaughter plants

where you just measure outcomes how many

cattle fell down how many cattle got

poked with the Prada how many cattle are

moving their heads off and it's very

very simple you met you directly observe

a few simple things it's worked really

well I get satisfaction out of seeing

stuff that makes real change in the real

world we need a lot more of that and a

lot less abstract stone what are you

talking on the phone one of the things

you said that really astonished me was

he said one thing you were passionate

about was server farms talk about the

reason why I got really excited I read

about that

it's contains knowledge its libraries

and to me knowledge is something that is

extremely valuable so maybe over 10

years ago now our library got flooded

this is before the internet got really

big and I was really upset of all the

books being wrecked because it was

knowledge being destroyed and server

farms or data centers are great

libraries of knowledge temple can I just

say it's an absolute delight to have you

at Ted well thank you so much thank you