Language just gradually came in, one or two stressed words a time. Before then, I would just scream. I couldn't talk. I couldn't get my words out. So the only way I could tell someone what I wanted was to scream. If I didn't want to wear a hat, the only way I knew to communicate was screaming and throwing it on the floor.
Temple GrandinPeople are always looking for the single magic bullet that will totally change everything. There is no single magic bullet.
Temple Grandinhere's certain things that are similar to cats and dogs. Dogs are just hyper social and they have a want to please you way more than a cat does.
Temple GrandinIn special education, there's too much emphasis placed on the deficit and not enough on the strength.
Temple GrandinI feel very strongly that if you got rid of all of the autistic genetics you're not going to have any scientists. There'd be no computer people. You'd lose a lot of artists and musicians. There'd be a horrible price to pay.
Temple GrandinYou take somebody - one person has definitely got autism, you got another person that maybe has some of those traits and maybe there's some anxiety, depression, some epilepsy or something in the family history. Put them together, you're more likely to have a severely autistic kid than if you don't have any neurological problems in the family history.
Temple GrandinI can explain how a person with autism thinks. I am very, very interested in how people think. It's been a gradual process of learning more and more about how my thinking process is different. You know it's bottom up - you take specific examples to make concepts and then I put them in categories.
Temple Grandin