When you take a drug to treat high blood pressure or diabetes, you have an objective test to measure blood pressure and the amount of sugar in the blood. It is straight-forward. With autism, you are looking for changes in behavior.
Category Archive: Temple Grandin
If you start using a medication in a person with autism, you should see an obvious improvement in behavior in a short period of time. If you do not see an obvious improvement, they probably should not be taking the stuff. It is that simple.
The thing about being autistic is that you gradually get less and less autistic, because you keep learning, you keep learning how to behave. It’s like being in a play; I’m always in a play.
I can remember the frustration of not being able to talk. I knew what I wanted to say, but I could not get the words out, so I would just scream.
Autism is part of who I am.
One big question that’s come up is: Has autism increased on the mild side of things? I don’t think so – they’ve always been here. Some of this is increased detection.
It’s much more work for the mother of an autistic child to have a job, because working with an autistic child is such a hassle until they go to school.
Some people with autism who don’t talk, all they hear are vowel sounds. Like if I said ‘cup,’ they might just hear ‘uh.’
My life is basically my work.
I was fascinated with optical illusions.