Temple Grandin: Society Is Failing Visual Thinkers, and That Hurts Us All.

[elleng]

'When I was younger, I believed that everybody thought in photo-realistic pictures the same way I did, with images clicking through my mind a little bit like PowerPoint slides or TikTok videos.

I had no idea that most people are more word-centric than I am. For many, words, not pictures, shape thought. That’s probably how our culture got to be so talky: Teachers lecture, religious leaders preach, politicians make speeches and we watch “talking heads” on TV. We call most of these people neurotypical — they develop along predictable lines and communicate, for the most part, verbally.

I was born in the late 1940s just as the diagnosis of autism was being applied to kids like me. I had no language until age 4 and was first diagnosed as brain damaged. Today, many people would say that I’m neurodivergent — a term that encompasses not only autism but also dyslexia, A.D.H.D. and other learning problems. The popularization of the term neurodivergence and society’s growing understanding about the different ways that brains work are unquestionably positive developments for many individuals like me.

Still, many aspects of our society are not set up to allow visual thinkers — which so many of us neurodivergent folks are — to thrive. In fact, many aspects of our society seem set up specifically so we will fail. Schools force students into a one-size-fits-all curriculum. The workplace relies too much on résumés and G.P.A.s to assess candidates’ worth. This must change not only because neurodivergent people, and all visual thinkers, deserve better but also because without a major shift in how we think about how we learn, American innovation will be stifled.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/09/opinion/temple-grandin-visual-thinking-autism.html

[Oneironaut]

1. I have Aspergers and think purely in pictures.

[Warpy]

6. I prefer the term "neuropeculiar" because it fits me best

My party trick is to be able to absorb large amounts of information (auditory or visual, word or picture) quickly and retain it for a very long time. I can't remember names to save my life, that's one of my biggest blind spots. I don't consider a person's name unimportant, I just can't do it until I know them well. The more common the name, the quicker it flies out of my brain.

Yesterday, someone posted about an art history professor being terminated because she showed her class pictures of Mohammad from Persia during the Middle Ages. I had seen those in my 20s and could picture them clearly. I also remember a few of the ones from India, Mohammad and some of his followers painted with grayish skin because that's probably how palefaces looked to people in northern India. I'm glad those paintings are still stored in there, they're gorgeous. Oh, and I'm in my mid 70s.

I think the exclusively visual thinking might apply more to men on the spectrum, since women on the spectrum were early talkers and late walkers and tend to be intensely verbal. In fact, it's expressed so differently in girls and boys that the girls simply got missed for decades. Now the thinking is that the incidence is roughly equal in both sexes.

However, my own term is neuropeculiar. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Walleye]

2. I read her book "Thinking in Pictures" some years ago

It really helped me understand myself. I don’t know that I cope any better, though

[MadameButterfly]

3. The language here is reminding me of the book Divergent

and I wonder if the author was familiar with the term for experiences like yours and crafted it into fiction. A book that champions people who think differently. But I don't want to further compare distopian entertainment with your very real experience.

[Flo Mingo]

4. If you haven't seen them

There is documentary about Temple Grandin's life as well as a movie starring Claire Daines. I highly recommend both.

https://www.pbs.org/video/rmpbs-specials-temple-grandin-world-needs-all-kinds-minds/|

https://documentaryheaven.com/the-woman-who-thinks-like-a-cow/|

[intrepidity]

5. I am extremely visual but always considered myself neurotypical

Maybe I'm not?

[Warpy]

7. There are a lot of online tests for autism

(most of which I flunk spectacularly, but some things just don't fit the diagnosis) that will point you toward making an appointment to get evaluated.

Women on the spectrum have flocked into the social sciences the way men gravitate toward math and engineering, so you're likely to find a therapist who understands.

(FWIW, I got marched off to engineering school because of how I tested in math and mechanics. I tested even higher in languages (English and French), so go figure. These days, it's only Typoese.)