Having an Autistic Child, I'm Sure You Get This All the Time

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The author says it's a mistake to try to stomp out kids' fascination with cars, electric fans. Autistic people can also be skilled welders or ADHD sufferers who are dyslexic and socially awkward. "We need them to fix elevators, fix cars," he says.

Temple Grandin was born in 1947 at a time when words like neurodivergent and neurotypical had yet to enter the lexicon, at a time when autism was not well understood, and since she didn’t develop speech until much later than most children she might have led a much different life if it hadn’t been for people around her who worked very hard to open up a space for her to thrive and explore her talents and abilities. In this episode we discuss all that as well as her latest book, Visual Thinking, all about three distinct ways that human brains create human minds to make sense of the world outside of their skulls.