Temple Grandin, Americas’s most famous person with autism, gave a talk in Tulsa Tuesday night at a packed house at Tulsa Community College’s Southeast Campus.

She talked for an hour over a wide range of topics. Much of it was centered on different ways of thinking among people and also on how animals think. She is as famous in the livestock facility industry  as she is in the autism world. Much of her success is because she is able to get inside a cow’s head and see what they see.

She talked about how that many people with autism and animals live in a sensory based world. They take particular notice and respond to the  details of the sights, smells, and textures around them. She calls that “bottom up” thinking as opposed to “top down” thinking. In her view top down thinking is driven by verbal thinking and tends to drown out notification of details.

She told us that she is a visual thinker and talked about the advantage of visual thinking. One example she gave was the Japanese nuclear reactor that failed during the tsunami last year. She said that a visual thinker would have never put the backup electrical generators in the basement of building so close to the ocean. She also talked about the BP Macondo oil spill and how BP was worried more about slips, falls, and scaldings than they were about well safety. On the day the well blew out BP personnel on the drilling rig could have been written up for drinking coffee in  a cup without a lid.

She spent some time on America’s educational system and how the “hands on” classes that are so important to sensory thinking people  like sewing, welding, carpentry, and auto mechanics are being eliminated. She talked about how American corporations are moving their research and development facilities overseas because they cannot find enough scientists and engineers here in the USA.

She covered a wide range of topics. She was lively, spunky, and interesting and had a great sense of humor. The hour was up in what seemed like fifteen minutes and she got a standing ovation afterwards.

Of course, what she said was important but  important, especially to those of us who are parents of children with autism, is the example she sets for us and our kids. She really is our hero.

If she comes to your city, I strongly recommend that you go see her.