Interviews: Ask Dr. Temple Grandin About Animals and Autism 131
Being listed in the "Time 100" of the most influential people in the world in the "Heroes" category, is just one of the many awards received by Temple Grandin. Diagnosed with autism at the age of two, Temple overcame many obstacles and earned a doctoral degree in animal science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is a professor at Colorado State University. Dr, Grandin is recognized as an expert in animal behavior and one of the leading advocates for the rights of autistic persons. She lectures, and has written numerous books on animals and autism, and was the subject of the award-winning, biographical film, Temple Grandin . Dr. Grandin has agreed to take some time out of her schedule to answer any questions you may have. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one per post.
autism and the mentally ill (Score:2, Interesting)
Do you feel any connection to the challenges of the mentally ill (schizophrenia, manic depressive, bipolar disorder) and autistic persons?
Advice for parents of a high functioning toddler (Score:2, Interesting)
What advice do you have for parents of a high functioning toddler with hearing loss and autism?
From a friend who saw your PBS documentary (Score:5, Interesting)
Some people with autism experience sensory overload and anxiety. Do animals share that, or what is simliar/different between animals and people who have autism?
genesis of autism? (Score:4, Interesting)
Self diagnosis and too broad a spectrum (Score:3)
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I know, technically speaking, we're not supposed to answer the questions raised, but as a parent of a child on the Autism spectrum as well as someone who considers himself undiagnosed as well, I think I have some personal experience to share.
Don't worry if you don't match all the stories of autism. Every person with autism is different. My son has sensitivities to some noises (running the vacuum in my house leads to him screaming if he hasn't been properly prepared - and even if he has been), but I don't.
industrialized farming (Score:5, Interesting)
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Excellent question.
I saw Dr. Grandin on one of the NatGeo shows. What a great role model for people struggling with autism, as well as women interested in STEM. Well, anyone interested in STEM really. This is a much better interview choice than that crap earlier this week.
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I would also be very interested in her thoughts on large-scale (industrial) versus small-scale (family) farming.
Frequency of Autism (Score:4, Interesting)
Is there an actual increase in the frequency of autism, more awareness (diagnosis), changing definitions, or something else that explains the [presumed] increase in number of children with autism?
Factory farming (Score:2)
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Excellent question. I would add to the list above the issue of food sources, as in animals in factory settings not getting food sources that are natural for them and cause digestion issues (e.g., cows eating soy, and I'm sure there are probably even better examples). A lot of people think diet/gut health may have some relations to autism, maybe not as a cause but as an exacerbating factor that can make symptoms better or worse. With her close connection with animals, has she observed that eating certain
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With that said, I've seen her speak several times at animal science conferences, and she came to receive an awa
Do you find it offensive? (Score:1)
Do you find it offensive that for one to be diagnosed is to become marginalized while given institutional support, while many go undiagnosed and generally become outcasts but without becoming institutionally separated from the normal class of citizens?
In other words, at what point is it advantageous to say "I have a disorder" versus "I think in pictures", or - at what point does one go from "I have a disorder" to "You wouldn't understand what it's like to think in pictures"? I have known many self-proclaim
High Function vs Low function (Score:4)
What do you believe is the difference between a high functioning Autistic person and a low functioning Autistic person.
Idealism vs Reality in Veterinary Medicine (Score:4, Interesting)
Dr. Grandin,
I'm not a veterinarian, but my spouse is, so I'm in contact with veterinarians regularly. In the majority of cases, these vets entered school with the idea that they would be spending the rest of their lives helping animals and are bitterly disappointed with the reality of ear/tail docking, convenience euthanasia, and the lack of will when confronted with clients who should probably not have pets (neglect, abuse, etc.) - "there's always another vet who will work with these people if I lay down the law."
Do you feel that you and your fellow faculty members are preparing your students for the realities of general practice? Are the veterinarians I'm describing simply being naive?
Thanks very much for your time.
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Nice option would be (Score:3)
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Difference between human and animal cognition (Score:2)
Your work improving slaughterhouses essentially involved empathizing with the animals and understanding the factors that were causing them excessive stress.
Why do you think most people have so much trouble doing this? Is it just experience, ie we don't realize a certain rake is making the cattle nervous because we haven't lived the life of a cow. Or do you think there's something fundamentally different about the cognition of different animals that makes them respond in ways that humans have trouble relatin
Adult Diagnosis (Score:5, Interesting)
First of all, thanks for all your work for people on the spectrum.
I'm the parent of a child on the autism spectrum (High Functioning/Asperger's). When we got our son's diagnosis and I was reading up on Autism, I began to realize that these books were describing me also. Suddenly, all the things in my life that seems to set me apart from everyone else made sense. Now, I identify myself as undiagnosed Asperger's. I've considered getting a diagnosis but held back for various reasons (financial constraints, thinking my diagnosis wouldn't help my son, thinking that my diagnosis wouldn't help me). Sometimes, though, it feel like not getting the diagnosis sets me apart and casts doubt on whether I really have autism or not.
Would you recommend that adults who think they are on the spectrum get a diagnosis? If so, do you have any recommendations for how to proceed with this?
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I don't really understand the point of the diagnosis. Changing or improving behaviors that negatively impact yourself or others around you apply to autistic people as much as ntypicals.
If you think you need help with this get counseling.
Re:Adult Diagnosis (Score:4, Insightful)
At times, I want to get a diagnosis not so much for myself but for others. My parents, for example, reacted to my "I have autism" declaration as if I insulted their parenting skills. I know that this comes out of ignorance and that a diagnosis won't stop this. My father still tries to claim that my diagnosed son will "grow out of it" or that an accomplishment of his is "proof he doesn't have autism." Still, it would be nice sometimes to say definitively "Yes, I have autism as diagnosed by this medical doctor."
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My now-5-year-old son was also diagnosed as a high functioning autistic, and both me and my wife have many of the traits, with regards to social anxiety and language delays as youths, but neither diagnosed. Born 3 weeks premature, he was always on a track for monitoring. At age 2, he spoke about 10 words, was touch sensitive (hated anything loud or sticky), and got the diagnosis then. I myself was in denial for a while, thinking why did it have to happen to him, he's just a little behind, it will come.
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My son was diagnosed HFA and PDD- his 'tested' IQ in early grade school was 70. He's in advanced math and science now(HS) and although he struggles socially he has changed a lot.
We got the diagnoses for the special services he receives in school but it isn't normally a topic for ourselves or with the rest of the family.
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As a person who was diagnosed by a specialist psychologist as an adult, I would recommend it to others, with a couple of cautions.
First the cautions. It might cost very little if you live in the UK, but it might cost a lot if you live in the US. I live in Australia and it cost me the equivalent of US$500 for the whole diagnostic assessment process. I have heard of people paying US$1-2K for a diagnostic assessment in America. Only you can tell how much it will cost and whether that price is worth it. But I c
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Getting diagnosed was excellent for me. It hadn't occurred to me that I might have Aspergers until I went through the testing, but it suddenly explained a tremendous amount about my life.
It also means that I no longer try and act like other people. That takes a lot of pressure off me, because I can't do some of the things that others take for granted. So instead I live life my way, not the way friends and family seem to think I should. Far far happier as a result.
Autism More Common Now? (Score:2)
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How about people are more aware of it and reporting it more? That seems at least as likely as your misdiagnosis/expansion theory. And, by the way, just because there's expansion of a category doesn't mean it's wrong to do so. It may be that experts recognize a linkage they might not have seen before, figured out that people who were previously seen as "close" to diagnostic boundaries are actually seen to suffer as much as those seen to be well within the initial boundary, a cure becomes available for someth
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You might want to do something about your apparent oversensitivity and tendency to toss unfounded accusations at others.
Internet Autism (Score:5, Interesting)
There a phenomenon on the internet - particularly among the nerd/geek technical community - to self-diagnose as "autistic" or having Asperger syndrome. (That is, they read something on the internet about autism, say "hey, that sounds vaguely similar to me", and then claim to have autism/Aspergers without even going to a doctor for an official diagnosis.)
What's your take on this? By claiming a condition which they might not technically have, are they de-stigmatizing it, or is it more that by "jumping on the bandwagon" they are trivializing a potentially serious condition? Are you concerned about "autism poseurs"?
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This seems to be one of the more interesting questions I have read. I'd like to hear her take on this too.
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Advice for workplace acceptance and accommodation? (Score:1)
Dr. Grandin: As someone diagnosed with high-functioning autism 17 years ago, I found your talk, "My Experience With Autism", to be absolutely fascinating in that it struck me someone describing in intricate detail how my mind work without ever having met me. I was particularly struck by your description of visual thinking, as it is something that I have always done. I use visual thinking when writing the graphics routines for video games, and the ability to map a mental image onto code almost instantly is t
Technology and livestock handling (Score:2)
How has technology been employed to automatically detect and either alert or mitigate potential distraction situations? For example, using sensors to alert when external sound and motion levels become an issue or when livestock shows above normal signs of stress. Another example might be the tailored use of CAD to design facilities that take into account "other common distractions [s
Language Constructs and Animal Intelligence (Score:1)
Businesses and Autism (Score:2)
religious observances? (Score:1)
Autism/Intellectual Evolution and Education? (Score:1)
Over the years fields have gotten more and more in-depth/specialized to the point where a hundred or two hundred years back it wasn't unthinkable for a person to know several fields in completion. These days fields are very specialized - even to the point where a subject matter expert may not be able to know the full corpus of their field. At the same time the rates of autism and asperger's syndrome shoot up when you breed to people of high intellect.
Following this line of thinking my questions are:
Recommended supplementary curriculum for HFA? (Score:2)
Is there a recommended curriculum you'd recommend we could use to supplement at home?
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Coping skills progression & success (Score:2)
Other advocates? (Score:2)
Your videos defending the meat industry (Score:1)
I've watched a video you made defending the cattle ranching industry and the process by which cows are slaughtered. How much is the meat industry paying you, and how can I be sure you're telling the truth?
Do you think cows would choose to be slaughtered if given a preference test? Why do you think it is right for humans to eat animals?
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Why do you think it is right for humans to eat animals?
Fact - humans, like pigs, are omnivores.
Unwanted Advice - Get over it, and stop attacking someone who has single handedly done more to sell the benefits of humane treatment of our enslaved prey to the meat industry than global organisations such as PETA could ever hope to do with their immature and condescending, self-righteousness.
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Pandas choose vegetarianism, despite having the digestive system of carnivores.
Grandin's work is like getting the Ku Klux Klan to tell their lynch victims they're going to be in a one-legged race so they'll be compliant to tying them up before the lynching. She's fully sold out to the meat industry. I'm just curious what her price was?
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Autism/autistic becoming the new go-to insult (Score:2)
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Asperger's self awareness (Score:1)
Filming in Slaughter houses (Score:1)
Dear Dr Grandin, (Score:2)
Question : Do you
Relationship between animal experience and autism (Score:2)
I've seen many claims that being a human with autism somehow gives you some special access to animal experiences. Since no one knows what animals actually experience, and pretty much everything we know about both animal evolution and autism tells us that a human with autism is if anything less likely than a neurotypical human to have sound insight into the lived experience of a domesticated harem-keeping herbivorous prey-animal with completely different evolved responses to external stimuli--since neurotypi
Brain function changes through life (Score:1)
Dr. Grandin, thank you for taking time to answer questions. I have been familiar with your work in the autism field for many years. I first found your book, "Thinking in Pictures" when my son was a toddler and my husband and I were attempting to figure out if we could avoid an institution as a long term choice for him. Your book describing your thought process provided myself with a key and I was able to help him start communicating with us by drawing, by hand and then on the computer. He is in his 20's now
ABA Behavior Therapy (Score:2)
Comfort vs. Discipline (Score:2)
Dr. Grandin, thank you for taking the time to review these topics with us.
My question is regarding the notion that some behavior therapists have with respect to never taking a child out of their comfort zone; that is, some therapists seem to explicitly avoid emotional discomfort, "work" etc. I would ask you whether or not your experiences would support this type of therapy, or whether you see some benefit for children undergoing therapies to be pushed and challenged outside of their comfort zone?
Cause? (Score:2)
Dr. Grandin, thank you for taking the time to review these topics with us.
My question is in regards to what you might think the underlying cause of the sensory differences which manifest in young children which fall under the umbrella term autism could possibly be.
I have two boys who have been diagnosed on the spectrum, and each is very different. One is now 13 and falls under a more classic "Aspergers"/PDD/NOS classification. He seems to respond to light medications for managing his anxiety; he plays the v
Use of Aerial Surveillance with Livestock (Score:1)
full of it (Score:2)
Wahhh!!!! "Inequality is a weapon!" Being disadvantaged is not a weapon. You like to imagine that you are being held back, but has it occured to you that you are a loser just because you are a loser? The democraticizing effects of the Internet allow you to have a much greater voice than you would otherwise. If you went around saying what you really think IRL, you'd get your ass kicked.
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You should become a Social Justice Warrior and have him banned!!
Re:Why don't other animals have "social justice"? (Score:5, Interesting)
Humans are animals. Humans also have the concept of "social justice" (which is, in fact, neither social nor justice, but rather a perversion of both). Yet other animals do not have this concept.
The adherence to "social justice" by many of its proponents also follows many of the symptoms of autism, most importantly a complete willingness to overlook irrational and hypocritical behavior.
If autism is found in other animals, why do we not see these animals also suffering from "social justice"?
That must have been hard to phrase your angry off-topic rant in the form of a question.
I'd also question your claim that animals don't have social justice. If we ignore your incoherent definition (ie any moral judgement you disagree with) and look at actual social justice things like concepts of fairness and policing social norms it's clear animals do have social justice [livescience.com].
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Humans are animals. Humans also have the concept of "social justice" (which is, in fact, neither social nor justice, but rather a perversion of both). Yet other animals do not have this concept.
How do you know?
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By observation?
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Here's an observation: give cows and chickens a choice of whether to go to the slaughterhouse or not. Let them see where they're going and hear the cries of the animals slaughtered before them. If they choose to continue to slaughter, then you can eat them. If any of them bolt and try to get away, you can't eat them.
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You want animals to have equal rights as humans? Then they would need to pay taxes and be subject to our laws about not shitting in public and killing each other. Get a grip on reality, seriously.
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Most animals don't live in a society, so the concept doesn't apply. Animals that do live in a society do have social justice ("justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society" [wikipedia.org]). Some animal societies (eg. bee colonies) do a lot of resource sharing. It's not hard to see why this would be a useful group behavior to evolve.
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The problem is people see voluntary cooperation in a free society working wonders, so they suppose if you just use laws to force people to cooperate similarly, you will produce similar results.
Last century was a test of hundreds of such experiments involving over ten billion people that showed conclusively that that supposition is disastrously wrong.
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What makes you think the queen bee is "ruling"? She's just there to make babies.
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a complete willingness to overlook irrational and hypocritical behavior.
I think that applies to almost every human as it's a very common cognitive bias. You don't have to talk with someone for very long before you can find some part of their behavior or belief system that is contradictory. Most people will try to rationalize it away when it is pointed out to them, and very few will actually adjust their behavior/beliefs, especially if it's something that they feel strongly about or as a major aspect of themselves.
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I feel like you're probably just trolling, but I can tell you that my chickens definitely have a concept of social justice. One is the alpha female, and if one of the non-alphas starts picking on another chicken, the alpha will basically step in and do what needs to be done to restore order. Usually this just entails her standing up really tall and flapping her wings a few times right in front of the bully as a warning. And chickens aren't even very smart.
Apes and chimps also have established social orde
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Actually, along these lines, Dr. Grandin, what are the most 'notable' behaviors (in your opinion) that you see displayed in animals:
I think I'm asking this about mammals (due to the advanced development of their brains), but if that assumption overly constrains the question, answer as broadly as you feel appropriate. References to published papers would also be great.
This is just sad (Score:2, Troll)
We haven't really had to many of the Reddit asshole/Gamergate types on Slashdot lately and I'd say it reflects well on this site that most of the replies to this AC don't even really seem to know about anti-social justice campaign he supports.
I don't even want to call this person a troll, because things like "BSD is dying" were actually clever and funny, and this AC is just a petty bully who kicks down.
Dr. Temple Grandin is being featured on "Ask Slashdot" because she's a very interesting and accomplished p
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Your question is obviously not legitimate. You are just angry that Temple Grandin is more important than you. And you just like to whine about social justice, but because you have failed without being the member of an oppressed group.
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You're right, but I feel he should know his behavior is pathetic.
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I was wondering about why we were having a suprisingly high number of trolls posting questions, then I realized it must be due to the whole Reddit stuff going on and the misfits are migrating over here.
Kind of sad. Used to be just a small handful of people, where I could imagine that maybe they had Tourette's and the copraphilia or racism wasn't really their own fault. But now it's too much. Makes me miss the days when the only evil we had to worry about was Dice and Beta.
Mod parent up (Score:2)
Not really (Score:2)
It's off topic. It'd be interesting if the AC decided to get a life and try to take on the real world.
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Whether you agree with parent post or not, it would be interesting to see what response it engenders.
That even after you remove the rant and bias it's still a really stupid question.
You might as well ask why animals don't have political pundits.
Why ask why animals don't have X when you'd probably agree people didn't even have X until some time in the last few hundred years.