This morning I started reading “Thinking in Pictures” by Temple Grandin. Yesterday I skimmed it to produce the idea skeleton my mind requires in order to comprehend fully. I’m driving my husband crazy as he is attempting to work on programming – I keep saying “Aha!” and reading things in Temple’s words that I have told him in my own words before, sometimes decades earlier.
I didn’t take a foreign language in HS, Instead I had to take one in college. The first week in French class I remember being confused as the teacher conjugated verbs. I could not comprehend why conjugations were used UNTIL I realized that we also do that in English. Since I learn visually, and grammar is all pictorially stored, I didn’t notice conjugations as anything but sound pictures. On page 15, Temple mentioned her struggle with conjugating “to be” and I described the memorized grammatical structures via sound picture again to my husband. He thought the idea of a sound picture amusing. Then on page 16, I laughed. Temple described an autistic musician who uses sound pictures to compose. Even the phrase “sound picture” was used. IMMEDIATELY after that she described a computer programmer who uses language trees very much the way I have told others I do when learning a language. I have to know the basic structure of the language as a tree, then I apply the details to the various branches as I discover them. I have not seen anyone describe either of these concepts before, except for me of course, until today.
Just like Temple Grandin, I think in pictures, but I have different sorts of pictures than hers. When I try to describe some of the pictures to my husband I realize I am indeed synaesthetic, since I cannot describe them without mentioning the flavor and color with which the sound picture is associated.
She also mentioned the associative thinking style of the autistic. I thought everyone thought that way. She contrasts it with logic, but I disagree. I am convinced that there is associative logic which allows us to see difficulties in advance of the occurrence, allowing us to solve them beforehand.
Perhaps the most interesting parts of these books, however is not watching my cognitive style as it is described by various autistics, but the idea that it is different. I thought everyone thought this way…….
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Filed under: A Few Basic Concepts, Aesthetics, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Combined Arts, Creativity, Education, Errors in Professional Documentation, Excerpts and Comments from other Authors, General Commentary on Society, Musical Expression, Personal Topics, Previously Written Articles, Word Play, ASD, asperger's, attention, attention deficit disorder, atypical autism, autism, autism spectrum disorder, cultural standards, curriculum, focus, minimal brain dysfunction, neurotypical, PDD, perceptual, pervasive developmental disorders, philosophy, psychology, relationships, sensory integration, society, standards, stereotypes
Wisdom from the Bible
July, 2010 • 12:23 pm
Aha!
This morning I started reading “Thinking in Pictures” by Temple Grandin. Yesterday I skimmed it to produce the idea skeleton my mind requires in order to comprehend fully. I’m driving my husband crazy as he is attempting to work on programming – I keep saying “Aha!” and reading things in Temple’s words that I have told him in my own words before, sometimes decades earlier.
I didn’t take a foreign language in HS, Instead I had to take one in college. The first week in French class I remember being confused as the teacher conjugated verbs. I could not comprehend why conjugations were used UNTIL I realized that we also do that in English. Since I learn visually, and grammar is all pictorially stored, I didn’t notice conjugations as anything but sound pictures. On page 15, Temple mentioned her struggle with conjugating “to be” and I described the memorized grammatical structures via sound picture again to my husband. He thought the idea of a sound picture amusing. Then on page 16, I laughed. Temple described an autistic musician who uses sound pictures to compose. Even the phrase “sound picture” was used. IMMEDIATELY after that she described a computer programmer who uses language trees very much the way I have told others I do when learning a language. I have to know the basic structure of the language as a tree, then I apply the details to the various branches as I discover them. I have not seen anyone describe either of these concepts before, except for me of course, until today.
Just like Temple Grandin, I think in pictures, but I have different sorts of pictures than hers. When I try to describe some of the pictures to my husband I realize I am indeed synaesthetic, since I cannot describe them without mentioning the flavor and color with which the sound picture is associated.
She also mentioned the associative thinking style of the autistic. I thought everyone thought that way. She contrasts it with logic, but I disagree. I am convinced that there is associative logic which allows us to see difficulties in advance of the occurrence, allowing us to solve them beforehand.
Perhaps the most interesting parts of these books, however is not watching my cognitive style as it is described by various autistics, but the idea that it is different. I thought everyone thought this way…….
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Filed under: A Few Basic Concepts, Aesthetics, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Combined Arts, Creativity, Education, Errors in Professional Documentation, Excerpts and Comments from other Authors, General Commentary on Society, Musical Expression, Personal Topics, Previously Written Articles, Word Play, ASD, asperger's, attention, attention deficit disorder, atypical autism, autism, autism spectrum disorder, cultural standards, curriculum, focus, minimal brain dysfunction, neurotypical, PDD, perceptual, pervasive developmental disorders, philosophy, psychology, relationships, sensory integration, society, standards, stereotypes