In the past, when working with individuals with autism, I always wished that I had some way of getting inside their heads and experiencing the world through their senses. I became interested in being an SLP while working as a teaching assistant in a self-contain autism classroom. When I started, one of the first things my supervising teacher told me was that I should think of the students as if they were aliens from another planet. By this she meant that I should not expect them to experience their surroundings in the same way that I do. This was easily the most useful thing I learned during my first few days at work.
Temple Grandin and other individuals with autism who are able to express their experiences offer an invaluable resource. Grandin's book Thinking In Pictures helped me to better understand my students' need for deep pressure stimulation. In the book, she describes squeezing herself in a machine meant for holding cattle. She explains the therapeutic affect that the machine has on her and how unsettled she feels if she does not get the pressure.
We can use Grandin's accounts to help us understand autism overall. While the spectrum is quite broad, there are characteristics (like the need for deep pressure) that show up all along the spectrum. Any insight she can provide into what it is like to live with autism helps us to better understand individuals who cannot express themselves.
