Thinking in pictures

Animals think in pictures. And so does Temple Grandin, a famous autistic and expert on animal behavior. Whose life story recently became an inspiring tele-movie starring Clare Danes.

Her brain works like Google for Images. Or movies in your head. Similar to the way animals see the world, through direct experience. But also via the senses of hearing and smell.



Grandin's "disability" is also the source of her amazing ability. Autism helped her discover what makes cattle balk. To see the world from a cow's point of view. Flags waving. A coat on a fence. A hose on the floor. A chain hanging down. Rapid movement.

Animals see a man standing or riding as different things. They might be spooked by all men with black hats, even if the men are different people, simply because they appear identical to a feared situation.

She gives the example of the power of direct experience, that human's have lost since we have become verbal thinkers because we now mostly think with words.

The dog that sniffs a fire hydrant can tell straight away who has been there, when they were there, if they are a friend or foe or suitable for mating.

Her way of seeing the world from an animal perspective led to revolutionary designs for cattle handling chutes and races, that are both more efficient and more humane. She found she could play a movie in her mind to visualize how the different parts of something new would work.

Autistic minds attend to details. Bottom up thinking, how to put all the pieces together, like a jigsaw puzzle. It's also a continuum from the extremely severe to the mildly autistic but includes, at the top end, brilliant scientists and engineers. If we had no more autism there would be no Silicon Valley.

So it's hard to tell where autism ends and nerds begin. Grandin speculates that in this day and age, Einstein, Mozart and Tesla would have been diagnosed as autistic. We have autistics to thank for inventing our way out of the cave.

For parents of autistic children she has this advice. Get help as soon as you can. Start with activities that have a hands-on practical bent, like designing and making things. Cookery. Art. Woodwork. Do "visual" geometry and trigonometry and forget about "verbal" algebra. And because autistic minds tend to fixate on something, connect the fixation to something else, so the new activity is motivating. As a child, Hardin was fixated on horses. Over time her fixation with horses became a career with animals.

And for the rest of us. We need to redesign the education system, so it caters for all the different kinds of minds. The verbal, the visual, the pattern finders and the kinesthetic. But most important of all, she says kids need to also learn the basics. Table manners. Punctuality. Respect. If they are to succeed in the real world. And engage with mentors who have a practical bent developed in the real world, like the NASA space scientist who became her teacher. Who recognized her amazing visual and spatial abilities, believed in her, and steered her on a pathway to success.

So here's a workshop to explore these ideas:

1. In what ways do you feel you are different to other people? Give examples.
2. Describe some mental, physical or social skill you always wished you had, and how this could change your life.
3. Describe, what for you, is the most unusual way that other people think you can not understand/comprehend. Why is this way of thinking/acting so puzzling?
4. What are you really good at and how does this possibly relate to the quirky ways your mind works?
5. You can see the world in pictures like Temple Grandin. How could you use your powerful visual skills to design something practical to benefit the world.
6. You have developed a super-sensitive ability for smells, similar to a dog. What could you use this new-found ability in a career e.g. relationship consultant who helps people better deal with body odors.
7. Imagine one of your senses has been damaged e.g. taste, smell, vision, hearing. In what ways might you develop the other senses to acquire extra powers?
8. Thinking of the issues/thing about which you are passionate/fixated. Imagine you have acquired some new physical/mental powers that help you achieve your goals. What are they and how do they work?
9. You have the job of redesigning schools/lessons/activities to better suit the way you engage with the world. Describe an activity you would really enjoy.
10. Describe a person you have meet from real life who you think would make a wonderful, practical mentor for children.