Some people say I am weird, but I am just different!
People don’t really understand me sometimes when I say I am a Visual Thinker. When I saw the movie “Temple Grandin” on Saturday night, I realized how very similar I am to Temple. I think in pictures also! Different is not easy because other people either take advantage of different or push different around. Different is actually better than the norm, better than the Neurotypical in some respects. When people like myself are different from the typical, our achievements feel greater than a typical person because we had to take the extra mile of struggle than the typical person.
When a person on the Autism Spectrum is a Visual Thinker like myself, it is hard to follow someone talking to us trying to give verbal instructions. Every one on the Autism Spectrum is different and by being different, we view the world differently. Our strengths in whatever was given to us makes us wonderful, but our weaknesses may seem like we need to work on stuff. We all need to work on stuff to be better. The Neurotypical paradigm and the Autistic paradigm are two different parts of the world. One is more accepted than the other which is why people on the Autism Spectrum are trying to be more Neurotypical.
I feel any one has to be comfortable within their own skin and at the same time conform to society’s standards. Society is based on Human beings, but there are many different types of Human beings. Neurotypicals can make eye contact easily and everything flows easily with their communication.
Visual thinking is not just about learning things by seeing them, but by only seeing in our minds a visual image of how others would say something verbally. Communicating words are difficult for me which is why I have trouble telling a story of what happened on a particular day. Every one communicates differently and has different strengths and weaknesses. We need to build on our strengths and work on our weaknesses.
I really enjoyed watching ‘Temple Grandin’ starring Claire Danes! It was really a remarkable film. It showed one part of the Autism Spectrum, but there are many more parts to the whole Autism Spectrum.
posting again soon,
OUT, J
