Top 45 Temple Grandin Quotes

Research has shown that a barren environment is much more damaging to baby animals than it is to adult animals. It does not hurt the adult animals the same way it damages babies.

Let’s get into talking about how autism is similar animal behavior. The thing is I don’t think in a language, and animals don’t think in a language. It’s sensory based thinking, thinking in pictures, thinking in smells, thinking in touches. It’s putting these sensory based memories into categories.

It’s very important for the parents of young autistic children to encourage them to talk, or for those that don’t talk, to give them a way of communicating, like a picture board, where they can point to a glass of milk, or a jacket if they’re cold, or the bathroom.

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

I have been on the same dose of anti-depressants for 15 years, and my nerves still go up and down in cycles; but my nerves are cycling at a lower level than they were before.

We have got to work on keeping these children engaged with the world.

I was expected to sit at the table, learn how to eat properly.

I obtain great satisfaction out of using my intellect.

Research is starting to show that a child should be engaged at least 20 hours a week. I do not think it matters which program you choose as long as it keeps the child actively engaged with the therapist, teacher, or parent for at least 20 hours a week.

I am much less autistic now, compared to when I was young. I remember some behaviors like picking carpet fuzz and watching spinning plates for hours. I didn’t want to be touched. I couldn’t shut out background noise. I didn’t talk until I was about 4 years old. I screamed. I hummed. But as I grew up, I improved.

You have got to keep autistic children engaged with the world. You cannot let them tune out.

I was fascinated with optical illusions.

As you may know, some of the stereotyped behaviors exhibited by autistic children are also found in zoo animals who are raised in a barren environment.

Some children may need a behavioral approach, whereas other children may need a sensory approach.

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.

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 stuff.

I’ve always thought of myself as a cattle-handling specialist, a college professor first; autism is secondary.

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.

I like to figure things out and solve problems.

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

The most important thing people did for me was to expose me to new things.

Children between the ages of five to ten years are even more variable. They are going to vary from very high functioning, capable of doing normal school work, to nonverbal who have all kinds of neurological problems.

My grandfather was an engineer who invented the automatic pilot for airplanes.

I like to cross the divide between the personal world and the scientific world.

When I was in high school and college, I thought everybody could think in pictures. And my first inkling to my thinking was even different was when I was in college and I read an article about, you know, some scientist said that the caveman could not have designed tools until they had language.

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

I use my mind to solve problems and invent things.

The thing about being autistic is that you gradually get less and less autistic, because you keep learning, you keep learning how to behave. It’s like being in a play; I’m always in a play.

If I did not have my work, I would not have any life.

Computerized medical records will enable statistical analysis to be used to determine which treatments are most effective.

I had problems getting my words out. If people spoke directly to me, I understood what they said. But when the grownups got to yakking really fast by themselves, it just sounded like ‘oi oi.’ I thought grownups had a separate language. I’ve now figured out I was not hearing the hard consonant sounds.

Language for me narrates the pictures in my mind.

One of my sensory problems was hearing sensitivity, where certain loud noises, such as a school bell, hurt my ears. It sounded like a dentist drill going through my ears.

A treatment method or an educational method that will work for one child may not work for another child. The one common denominator for all of the young children is that early intervention does work, and it seems to improve the prognosis.

There is a tremendous range of children with a PDD label.

People are always looking for the single magic bullet that will totally change everything. There is no single magic bullet.

I think that autistic brains tend to be specialized brains. Autistic people tend to be less social. It takes a ton of processor space in the brain to have all the social circuits.

One big question that’s come up is: Has autism increased on the mild side of things? I don’t think so – they’ve always been here. Some of this is increased detection.

And while we are on the subject of medication you always need to look at risk versus benefit.

What I’ve tried to do is combine both my personal experiences with scientific research. I like to cross the divide between the personal world and the scientific world.

Costs for liability insurance are higher than costs for many procedures. There is a need to reform liability laws to stop out-of-control health care costs.

Language for me narrates the pictures in my mind. When I work on designing livestock equipment I can test run that equipment in my head like 3-D virtual reality. In fact, when I was in college I used to think that everybody was able to do that.

Some people with autism who don’t talk, all they hear are vowel sounds. Like if I said ‘cup,’ they might just hear ‘uh.’

The squeeze machine is not going to cure anybody, but it may help them relax; and a relaxed person will usually have better behavior.

My mind sort of works like a search engine. You ask me something, and I start seeing pictures.