The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum (28 page)

Read The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum Online

Authors: Temple Grandin,Richard Panek

Tags: #Non-Fiction

John is 29 now and recently engaged. He and his fiancée plan to leave New York for “somewhere where the money I get goes further.” Don’t worry, though, about whether he can find another job that’s such a great match. “I have permission from work to telecommute permanently.”

We’ve come a long way from the days of doctors telling the parents of autistic children that the situation was hopeless and that the only humane option was a life sentence in an institution.

We have a lot farther to go, of course. Ignorance and misunderstanding are always difficult to overcome when they’ve become part of a society’s belief system. For instance, when the movie
The Social Network
came out, in 2010, the
New York Times
op-ed columnist David Brooks wrote this assessment of the onscreen character of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook: “It’s not that he’s a bad person. He’s just never been house-trained.” The “training” of the fictional character, however, would have had to somehow accommodate a brain that can’t process facial and gestural cues that most people easily assimilate and that finds its greatest fulfillment not in the fizzy buzz of forming a personal relationship but in the click-clack logic of writing code.

When something is “all in your mind,” people tend to think that it’s willful, that it’s something you could control if only you tried harder or if you had been trained differently. I’m hoping that the newfound certainty that autism is in your brain and in your genes will affect public attitudes.

As we’ve seen, it’s already affecting research, prompting scientists to redouble efforts to look for cause and cure. And it’s already affecting therapeutic attitudes, shifting the emphasis from a sole focus on deficits to a broader appreciation of strengths.

When I look back on where autism was sixty years ago, when my autistic brain was creating great anxiety in Mother, curiosity in doctors, and a challenge to my nanny and teachers, I know that trying to imagine where we’ll be sixty years from now is a fool’s errand. But I have confidence that whatever the thinking about autism is, it will incorporate a need to consider it brain by brain, DNA strand by DNA strand, trait by trait, strength by strength, and, maybe most important of all, individual by individual.

Jobs for Picture Thinkers

Architectural and engineering drafter
Photographer
Animal trainer
Graphic artist
Jewelry/crafts designer
Web designer
Veterinary technician
Auto mechanic
Machine maintenance technician
Computer troubleshooter
Theater lighting director
Industrial automation designer
Landscape designer
Biology teacher
Satellite map analyst
Plumber
Heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning technician
Photocopier repair technician
Audio/visual equipment technician
Welder
Plant engineer
Radiological technician
Medical-equipment repair technician
Industrial designer
Computer animator

Jobs for Word-Fact Thinkers

Journalist
Translator
Specialty retailer (that is, a worker in a store that sells only one kind of product)
Librarian
Stocks and bonds analyst
Copyeditor
Accountant
Budget analyst
Bookkeeper and record-keeper
Special-education teacher
Book indexer
Speech therapist
Inventory-control specialist
Legal researcher
Contract specialist for auto dealership
Historian
Technical writer
Bank teller
Tour guide
Person at an information counter

Jobs for Pattern Thinkers

Computer programmer
Engineer
Physicist
Musician/composer
Statistician
Math teacher
Chemist
Electronics technician
Music teacher
Scientific researcher
Mathematical data mining analyst
Stock and financial investing analyst
Actuary
Electrician

Appendix: The AQ Test

PSYCHOLOGIST SIMON BARON-COHEN and his colleagues at Cambridge’s Autism Research Centre have created the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, or AQ, as a measure of the extent of autistic traits in adults. In the first major trial using the test, the average score in the control group was 16.4. Eighty percent of those diagnosed with autism or a related disorder scored 32 or higher. The test is not a means for making a diagnosis, however, and many who score above 32 and even meet the diagnostic criteria for mild autism or Asperger’s report no difficulty functioning in their everyday lives.

1. I prefer to do things with others rather than on my own.

2. I prefer to do things the same way over and over again.

3. If I try to imagine something, I find it very easy to create a picture in my mind.

4. I frequently get so strongly absorbed in one thing that I lose sight of other things.

5. I often notice small sounds when others do not.

6. I usually notice car number plates or similar strings of information.

7. Other people frequently tell me that what I’ve said is impolite, even though I think it is polite.

8. When I’m reading a story, I can easily imagine what the characters might look like.

9. I am fascinated by dates.

10 In a social group, I can easily keep track of several different people’s conversations.

11. I find social situations easy.

12. I tend to notice details that others do not.

13. I would rather go to a library than to a party.

14. I find making up stories easy.

15. I find myself drawn more strongly to people than to things.

16. I tend to have very strong interests, which I get upset about if I can’t pursue.

17. I enjoy social chitchat.

18. When I talk, it isn’t always easy for others to get a word in edgewise.

19. I am fascinated by numbers.

20. When I’m reading a story, I find it difficult to work out the characters’ intentions.

21. I don’t particularly enjoy reading fiction.

22. I find it hard to make newfriends.

23. I notice patterns in things all the time.

24. I would rather go to the theater than to a museum.

25. It does not upset me if my daily routine is disturbed.

26. I frequently find that I don’t know how to keep a conversation going.

27. I find it easy to “read between the lines” when someone is talking to me.

28. I usually concentrate more on the whole picture, rather than on the small details.

29. I am not very good at remembering phone numbers.

30. I don’t usually notice small changes in a situation or a person’s appearance.

31. I know how to tell if someone listening to me is getting bored.

32. I find it easy to do more than one thing at once.

33. When I talk on the phone, I’m not sure when it’s my turn to speak.

34. I enjoy doing things spontaneously.

35. I am often the last to understand the point of a joke.

36. I find it easy to work out what someone is thinking or feeling just by looking at their face.

37. If there is an interruption, I can switch back to what I was doing very quickly.

38. I am good at social chitchat.

39. People often tell me that I keep going on and on about the same thing.

40. When I was young, I used to enjoy playing games involving pretending with other children.

41. I like to collect information about categories of things (e.g., types of cars, birds, trains, plants).

42. I find it difficult to imagine what it would be like to be someone else.

43. I like to carefully plan any activities I participate in.

44. I enjoy social occasions.

45. I find it difficult to work out people’s intentions.

46. New situations make me anxious.

47. I enjoy meeting new people.

48. I am a good diplomat.

49. I am not very good at remembering people’s date of birth.

50. I find it very easy to play games with children that involve pretending.

How to score:
“Definitely agree” or “Slightly agree” responses to questions 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, 33, 35, 39, 41, 42, 43, 45, and 46 score 1 point. “Definitely disagree” or “Slightly disagree” responses to questions 1, 3, 8, 10, 11, 14, 15, 17, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 36, 37, 38, 40, 44, 47, 48, 49, and 50 score 1 point.

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