Story
These quotes are listed alphabetically by author and then date published. They are included here because, in my opinion, they can spark important reflection. Click on a quote image for further discussion.
Alex Gillespie Enrico Gnaulati Temple Grandin Stanley I. Greenspan Paul E. McGhee Barry M. Prizant
Stuart G. Shanker Steve Silberman
TEMPLE GRANDIN
”I'm sensitive to sounds. Loud sounds. Sudden sounds. Worse yet, loud and sudden sounds I don't expect. Worst of all, loud and sudden sounds I do expect but cannot control - a common problem in people with autism.”
Grandin, Temple (2013) The Autistic Brain. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Boston; New York. p. 69.
”The difference between the observer's view and the subject's experience - between the acting self and the thinking self - is the difference between what sensory problems look like and what they feel like.”
Grandin, Temple (2013) The Autistic Brain. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Boston; New York. p. 83.
”In either case, the lesson isn't that some people with autism receive too much information and are therefore overresponsive while other people with autism receive too little information and are therefore underresponsive. The lesson is that if your brain receives too much sensory information, your acting self might easily look underresponsive but your thinking self would feel overwhelmed.”
Grandin, Temple (2013) The Autistic Brain. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Boston; New York. p. 84.
”I have often thought that eventually we're going to be asking ourselves at what point this or that autism-related genetic variation is just a normal variation. Everything in the brain, everything in genetics - they're all one big continuum.”
Grandin, Temple (2013) The Autistic Brain. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Boston; New York. p. 104.
”For some people, a label can become the thing that defines them. It can easily lead to what I call a handicapped mentality. When a person gets a diagnosis of Asperger's, for instance, he might start to think, What's the point? or I'll never hold down a job. His whole life starts to revolve around what he can't do instead of what he can do, or at least what he can try to improve.”
Grandin, Temple (2013) The Autistic Brain. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Boston; New York. p. 105.
”Half the employees at Silicon Valley tech companies would be diagnosed with Asperger's if they allowed themselves to be diagnosed, which they avoid like the proverbial plague. ... A generation ago a lot of these people would have been seen simply as gifted.”
Grandin, Temple (2013) The Autistic Brain. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Boston; New York. pp. 105-106.
”(To my way of thinking, social impairments are the very core of autism - more so than the repetitive behaviors.) So having a diagnosis of social impairment that's distinct from the diagnosis of autism is the same as having a diagnosis of autism that's distinct from the diagnosis of autism!”
Grandin, Temple (2013) The Autistic Brain. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Boston; New York. p. 110.
”Personally, I would go even further and argue that we need to think not just about smaller autism subgroups that are defined by their symptoms but about the symptoms themselves. Because thinking about individual symptoms on a symptom-by-symptom basis will eventually allow us to think about diagnosis and treatment on a patient-by-patient basis.”
Grandin, Temple (2013) The Autistic Brain. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Boston; New York. p. 115.
”While autism researchers traditionally haven't seen this trait as a strength, they've nonetheless noted over the years that people with autism aften pay greater attention to details than neurotypicals.”
Grandin, Temple (2013) The Autistic Brain. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Boston; New York. pp. 119-120.
