TOW #5: "What's Right With the Autistic Mind" by Temple Grandin (via TIME Magazine)

     People often only see the bad parts of autism. Temple Grandin writes the TIME magazine article "What's Right With the Autistic Mind" to combat this belief. Grandin is a livestock expert and animal science professor who has autism, so she is able to effectively write about the strengths her autism gives her. Her article is directed to virtually anyone interested in science, specifically neuroscience and autism. By using examples from her own life and a personal tone, Grandin is able to effectively show readers that autism often comes with strengths, and identifying and facilitating those strengths can often be life-changing for an autistic person.

     One of the topics that Grandin discusses at length is what she calls "bottom-up thinking". This is a strong attention to detail that is often categorized as a deficit because "autistic people ... can't see the forest for the trees." However, Grandin has found that this so-called "deficit" is actually one of her strengths. When designing a cattle chute, Grandin was able to "immediately spot the paper cup or hanging chain that's going to spook the cattle, while the neurotypicals all around [her] don't even notice it." By using personal stories, Grandin is able to show that the autistic mind is not necessarily a bad thing, and that many "deficits" may actually turn out to be strengths. These life examples also contribute to Grandin's personal tone.

     The entire article is written in first person voice, which makes it immediately personal. To further this, Grandin uses her own experiences and insights into her mind to help back up her arguments. These all contribute to the article's personal tone, which allows Grandin to connect with her readers. Through this connection, she can truly show them how an autistic mind (or at least how hers) works. And this insight ultimately shows readers that there are often positive aspects to autism that need to be focused on.

     In "What's Right With the Autistic Mind", Temple Grandin is very personal – she constantly uses personal experiences as examples to support her arguments, and she establishes a personal tone through those examples and a first person voice. This connection that Grandin creates with her readers successfully shows them the strengths an autistic person can gain from their autism. Playing to these strengths, Grandin says, can allow autistic people to "cultivate their dreams."

Temple Grandin:

Grandin is best known for her work with animals, since, she has said, she can think like them. One of her most well-known projects was designing a cattle chute that wouldn't create stress in the animals before they were to be slaughtered.

(Source: http://www.speechbuddy.com/blog/speech-therapy-techniques/autism-advocacy-how-temple-grandin-conquered-her-diagnosis/)