Thinking in Pictures, Expanded Edition: My Life with Autism

I am the mother of a 2 year old with autism. This is the closest I can get right now to knowing even a little about what is going on in his head. I don't think any psych or pediatrician can even consider themselves an expert of the same caliber as Dr. Grandin. She is autism!

This is the best insite on how autistic people think. It is wonderful and inspiring. I now know how to help my son better with every day life to help him to be functional in society.

I read this by book by some chance but page after page it became like a mirror to me. And it was really a great shock. I agree totally with the others comments and Temple Grandin give us a more deeper view about autistic continuum. Before I believed I was a total social idiot. But every words she use are incredibly close to my way of thinking and my own history as we say in medical terms. And this book became an open door to another level in my life.
This book is helpful for a lot of people especially for parents and teachers who to confront to childs in autistic continuum. And I will be always grateful to Temple Grandin for this book. The worst thing for an high functioning autist is to be closed in his world. Knowing why you are different won't cure you but the balance of your mind is restored.

Dr. Grandin lectures on animal husbandry as well as autism. I've seen her speak in person. She's a very interesting individual. Her way of speaking comes through in the book. She writes very well for the layman.

She covers her career, her interests, and her autism. If you are interested in animal husbandry, interesting women, autism, then this is a good book. If you have autistic kids and feel really under it, its very reassuring to see how this one autistic person has done very well for herself, thanks to early intervention by her parents as well as determination and intelligence on her part.

I also like her personally, because I have had mixed feelings about being an omnivore and am glad she's out there making the experience of animals in our food production a lot less harrowing.

Excellent book and tool for those dealing with adult Asperger's. Until reading this book, there was no pragmatic connection with my brother, 53 years old, who has been isolated from family all his life due to his inability to see cause and effect. Visiting with psychologists in his early years did nothing to help parents understand his lack of emotional ties or connectivity to anything. He was labeled as very intelligent in certain fields (science, telecommunications, automotive knowledge)but had no common sense and kept repeating same mistakes over and over.

He was incarcerated for 17 years for sexual abuse of a female girlfriend and we could not understand how he failed to get parole or help while in prison while some of those serving time for far worse crimes, including murder, were paroled after only half the time. We now know that sensory problems and being able to "go with the flow" in the prison system kept him incarcerated to serve his entire sentence.

Luckily, family was able to run across articles about Asperger's and did research on it concluding that so many adults such as my brother had not been identified with this symptom. We are much more successful with dealing with him after reading Temple Grandin's book and have pegged her thinking to be very similar to my brother's--he also thinks in pictures but could not describe it and frequently did not know what we were talking about since he was unable to feel emotions as related by Ms. Grandin. He has read her book also and is reading it a second time. It has given the family insight into our brother's condition for the first time in 53 years and we are so very thankful for this book.