Animals and Autism

I went to hear Temple Grandin last week at the Free Library and my main take-away was "Don't make it too abstract." I will explain, but first a little background.

For those of you who don't know, Grandin is probably one of the most influential authors in the U. S. about two topics that seem unrelated: animals and autism. But the key thing about Grandin is that she has autism (as well as a Ph.D. in animal behavior) and contends that it is precisely her autism that makes her such a keen expert on animal behavior.

At 61, she has written numerous books including her memoir about autism, Thinking in Pictures as well as the best-selling Animals in Translation and is on the road promoting her recent tome, Animals Make Us Human. She has been a consultant to most companies involved in the agricultural industry and has (among other things) re-designed slaughterhouses to make them less threatening to cattle, based on her ability to understand the experience from the animal's perspective.

If at first the agricultural world thought her crazy, they know realize they are crazy not to enlist her services. She is also a professor of animal behavior at Colorado State.

So it should not have been a surprise that the event spilled over from the main auditorium (that seats 300) to a room where her remarks were simulcast. The audience was an interesting mix of parents of autistic children and animal lovers and activists. To say she was preaching to the choir is an understatement, but the turnout was a testimony to her influence.

Back to "Don't make it too abstract." Grandin must have said that about six or seven times. The key, she emphasized, to understanding animal behavior is to make it as simple as possible and to try and see it from the animal's perspective. The behaviors that an animal exhibits can usually be classified as either seeking (repetitive digging, rooting), panic (separation anxiety), fear (flight) or aggression (fight). Once you figure out the behavior--by watching it--the challenge is to figure out why it is taking place.

The even bigger challenge is to simply watch the behavior without analyzing it--take a video of it in your head and then describe the video was how she put it--without making it too abstract. As an example, someone in the audience (a vet student, I believe) asked a question about why pigs chew the bars while in gestation cages. Short of banning the cages, which Proposition 2 did in California, is there any other solution? Grandin's response was to note that pigs like to root and dig. By simply providing them with fresh straw every day, a researcher in Canada had all but eliminated the chewing behavior. Sounds like a fairly simple and humane solution to what many have made a complicated issue.

It seems to me that "Don't make it too abstract" is great advice for many of the issues we face in our daily lives. Taken at face value, eliminating the overtones of emotions and intentions, many behaviors we find vexing may simply be a result of the other person not being aware of behaving differently. We could, in other words, save ourselves a lot of wasted energy, if we simply took things at face value (not for what they implied or suggested) and let them go.

Of course, I bought her book, so stay tuned for a review when I get around to reading it!