Desert Health News - November-December 2023

the Squeeze Box. The device mimics the human hugs many autistic people cannot endure and is commercially distributed throughout the world. In her new book, Grandin discusses the need for society to recognize, honor and nourish the vast spectrum of thought processes and patterns, not only to maximize individual potential, but also to bolster innovation and ensure a strong future for American manufacturing. “Many aspects of our society are not set up to allow visual thinkers — which so many of us neurodivergent folks are — to thrive,” she said in a recent New York Times interview. “In fact, many aspects of our society seem set up specifically so we will fail. Schools force students into a one-size-fits-all curriculum. The workplace relies too much on résumés and GPAs to assess candidates’ worth. This must change not only because neurodivergent people, and all visual thinkers, deserve better, but also because without a major shift in how we think about how we learn, American innovation will be stifled.” If we want our students to be well rounded, she says, we should make sure the education we provide is too. She is a big proponent for the return of hands-on classes in school such as art, music, sewing, woodworking, cooking, theater, auto mechanics and welding, as these classes expose kids — especially neurodivergent students — to skills that could become a career. As an animal enthusiast, I have admired Grandin’s work for decades and was honored to interview her last month in anticipation of her appearance. LD: Your mother was such an important influence on you… “She was always pushing me to do things. I was really good at art, so she would push me to be less fixated on horse heads and get me to draw other things. She was always getting me out doing things. Also, in my generation, manners were taught in a much more structured way; that is not happening today. Kids were taught to shake hands, to say please and thank you. Grandparents, who have good jobs, share [with me] that they discovered they were autistic when their kids got diagnosed. It is a relief for them, as it helped them [finally] understand their relationship with others. What I see today are kids who are being held back by the diagnosis and not learning work – and life – skills that could get them good jobs.” LD: You didn’t read until you were eight… “And mother taught me with phonics. I already knew my ABC song and that has half the sounds. She just started reading to me out loud, very interesting books like The Wizard of Oz . She would stop at an exciting part and I would sound out a few words, and I learned very quickly. We did this 3-4 times a week and by the end of one semester, I went from no reading to sixth-grade level reading.” Her mother is now 97 and still lectures on autism. LD: The Grandin Papers revolutionized the livestock industry. What impact would you like to see with Visual Thinking ? “We don’t have enough young people going into skilled labor. I was in a meat packing plant yesterday observing a piece of new equipment that I designed over 30 years ago. There is now only one plant [in America] that can build them and the price was a bit too high. There is a connection there. The people that I worked with to build things years ago, visual thinkers - and some of them were autistic, are not being replaced. There is a link between the kid in the basement playing video games and the exorbitant cost of that [manufacturing] equipment today. It all comes back to the educational system. Today, Italy and Holland make a lot of that equipment, and thosecountries have a lot more respect for technology. In ninth grade, kids can select their path to university or tech.” LD: I’ve heard you compare “bottom up” (practical) thinking to how AI works… “Yes, you train AI with huge data sets. It makes concepts by putting things into categories, whereas with “top down” (conceptual) thinking, you might have a big concept, but how do you apply that concept? Let’s take the concept of having a more inclusiveclassroomwhichcomes upall the time when speaking of autism. And I will say, here are the things we need to do in that classroom: we’ve got to get bullying under control; some individuals are bothered by LED lights flickering, so fix them; some of the things that people who think differently need are written instructions versus long stents of verbal instruction. So, these are three specific things that can be done to make the classroom more inclusive. This is an example of bottom up thinking.” LD: Your brain never seems to stop. What do you do to relax? “I like solving problems. I find it very engaging. When I just need to just chill, I sit down and read." LD: But fromwhat I’ve ascertained, those books are all very intricate and analytical… “Well, for instance, this morning I sat down and read The Wall Street Journal and they were talking about safety systems at airports. You better believe that got read. LD [following laughter]: What do you consider your greatest accomplishment? “A simple system I designed for assessing animal welfare in pork and beef packing plants. In 1999, I taught McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King how to use it. When you have a big buyer like McDonald’s, who buys from all the big companies, inspecting and setting standards, that brings about big change. And it did.” LD: You are very good at public speaking and seem fearless… “When I did my first talk, I panicked and walked out. You get better with practice. And fearless? Well, sometimes it’s true and sometimes it isn’t.” LD: Just like the rest of us. www.DesertHealthNews.com November/December 2023 Medical News The Valley ' s Leading Resource for Health and Wellness 10 www.movementforlife.com Grandin’s design for moving cattle minimizes stress by mimicking their natural movement. Grandin’s inspiration for her Squeeze Box was the calm she saw cow’s experience while in cattle chutes. Dr. Temple Grandin Continued from page 1 Continued on page 16