Temple Grandin - The World Needs All Kinds of Minds

For quite a long time, autism was investigated by researchers who did their very best to explain a phenomenon with which they had no personal experience. While their research was helpful, it did not manage to capture or understand the personal subjectivity of those afflicted with this disorder... that is, until Temple Grandin came into the scene. Through her public appearances, Grandin gave a voice to the hitherto silent patients whose families had never managed to understand or relate to them, and radically changed their lives in the process.

In this TEDTalk presentation, Temple Grandin advocates for the practical need to cultivate mental diversity, and explains some of the ways in which we can foster the natural typology of minds already present in children, whether autistic or not: visual thinkers, pattern seekers, verbal communicators, geeky minds, problem-solvers, integrators, etc. Because of their particularity, she argues, each set of specialized thinkers has the potential to solve problems that the rest of our neurotypical brains might fail to solve.

I'll be posting more on Temple Grandin's work with animals soon.

In the meantime, learn more about autism, or check out other fascinating TEDTalks.
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