"The Autistic Brain" by Temple Grandin, a Review

The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the SpectrumThe Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum by Temple Grandin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Have you ever worked with anyone who is living with autism? Over the years I have been in situations where I have interacted professionally and informally with folks who have some form of autism, but I have never looked into this subject. Therefore, recently, I decided it was time to look below the surface and find out more. Temple Grandin's 240 page paperback, "The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum" was the first resource I nabbed, and how grateful I am to have picked it up. Grandin, a professor of animal science at Colorado State University and accomplished author speaks on autism from the inside out. The book is her story dancing together with the life-stories of many others who live with autism.

"The Autistic Brain" is, surprisingly, an easy read. In spite of the fairly technical chapters on brain formation and functionality, and the different ways autistics think (word-fact, picture or pattern), the author keeps the reader's attention focused and flowing. Like a trail guide at a national park, she walks the person who is reading on the right track, moving to the side on occasion to point out significant scenery, and then resuming the trek further along to trail's destination. Grandin tackles nature and nurture in graceful ways that give hope and insight both to those who are living with autism and those who live around autistics. As the author puts it, "Neuroanatomy isn't destiny. Neither is genetics. They don't define who you will be. But they do define who you might be. They define who you can be" (174).

"The Autistic Brain" is a valuable and lucid asset. This book will benefit anyone with autism, giving them a sense of anticipation. It also should be in the hands of parents who have children (young, teen or adult) coping with this neurological irregularity, to encourage them and aid them as they support and love their child. I gladly recommend the book.


View all my reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?" (Rev. Ed.) by John Fea. A Review

Image
  John Fea is a professor of history at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, PA. A university founded in 1909 by the Brethren in Christ Church. He originally published "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction" in 2011, and it was revised in 2016. This 328-page paperback is packed full with Colonial and American history, drawing from original sources to answer that question. It is a book written "for the historically minded and thoughtful reader who is looking for help in sorting" out this question, avoiding polemics (xix). Since we live in a sound-bite culture, Fea recognizes that it is difficult to have a sustained dialogue on this topic, but he makes a valiant effort toward having that sustained dialogue. The book reads fairly straightforward, and doesn't seem to get bogged down in the contentious mudpuddles or bogs. In the end, Fea seems to get his point across. To answer the reigning question if America was founded as a Christian...
Read more

Union with Christ - An Application

Image
  (This was my weekly letter to my congregation on Wednesday, 21 February 2024) This morning in my devotional reading, I was working through 1 Corinthians 8. Though I’ve read these words a huge number of times over the years, today one verse caused me to stop and take stock.  Paul wrote, “ Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ ” (1 Corinthians 8:12). What struck me is a couple of things. First, in God’s saving work, we are – by grace alone – united (hitched, bonded, ingrafted) to Christ so much so, that what happens to us happens to him, and what is his becomes ours (think of Galatians 2:20, for example). As Sinclair Ferguson put it, “through union with Christ all that is his by incarnation becomes ours through faith” (“The Christian Life,” 110). Let that percolate in your heart for a while. Your fear, anxiety, tears, and so forth, he feels. And his “ Peace, be still ” is yours. Second, the way we treat one an...
Read more

"Ah, Lord! We are Animated by Anger and Anxiety, Fear and Fury..."

Image
I hesitate to put this out there because of the combative environment we are in at present. But I think some souls will take courage from this, and some will also join with me as we get to the end of this little composition. I am struck by the words of God in Zechariah 8. As he rehearses the waywardness and faithlessness of his people in the past, he clearly declares that he " set every man against his neighbor " (8:10). That got me thinking long ago. I started putting the pieces together and realized that one of God's acts of judgment is division, setting a man against his neighbor. That's what happened when he divided his people into the northern tribes and southern tribes (see 1 Kings 11:26-40). Because of Solomon's turning aside, allowing his wives to turn his heart away from the God of his father, David, the Lord brings about a rift in God's people. And this pattern of divisive judgment runs throughout Scripture. On the other hand, truthful unity is the g...
Read more