next temple grandin presents autism research from the fields of neurology and psychology and shares her own experiences living with autism. this is a little over an hour. [applause] >> really great to be here tonight. i have a lot of things to talk about tonight. one of the things i might want to start talking about is exactly what is normal. mild autistic traits geeks and nerds become mild autism? half of silicon valley probably is a little bit of autism. it's a very big spectrum and at one end of the spectrum maybe steve jobs silicon valley computer guys the guy who fixes

your copier machine and at the other end of the spectrum you have got people much more handicapped, nonverbal definitely going to have to live in a supervised living situation. take somebody like albert einstein, no speech until age three. what would happen to little albert junior in today's school system? this short of -- sort of makes me shudder. how many drugs will they give out? way too many drugs given to little kids. research has shown that in a family history of a bipolar you have more creative types of people. the family histories of people with autism you have more technical kinds. a little bit of the trade gives an advantage to the trade of great big disadvantdisadvant age. at some point it's normal variation. one of the problems dealing with autism is the word autism. so many different people covered by this word from people that can be very accomplished to

people that live in a supervised living situation. diagnosis has changed over the years. autism diagnosis is not precise. it's not like a diagnosis for tuberculosis. either you have tuberculosis or you don't have tuberculosis. the american atlas association has a book called the dsm and when the first version came out when i was a little kid they thought autism was called by psychoanalytic type of problems and then there's the horrible face when parents got blamed for it and then the second edition they didn't even mention nazism at all. they just left it out. in the third edition you had to have speech delay and the onset by four years of age. in the early 90s they added asperger's where you could have a communication deficit and no speech delay so now you have broadened the mild spectrum. now in the dsm five comes out at the american is psychiatric

association in a few weeks they will take asperger's out to make it all autism and make a new category called social communication disorder and say it's not autism but that doesn't make very much sense because the social communication problems, that is part of the core criteria of autism. it's not precise. it's kind of a moving target here that has just kept on changing and changing and changing. one of the things i cover in a lot of detail is sensory problems. you can have sensory problems with dyslexia adhd many different labels and sensory problems vary from a nuisance to being so debilitating it can't tolerate a noisy restaurant or a the train station or any kind of place like that. when i was a little kid and a school bell went off it hurt my ears. one of the ways you can help to sensitize that is let the child initiate that sound. their other kids that can't stand fluorescent lights.

they can see them flicker like a strobe light. sometimes glasses help. sometimes using pale pastel paper will help. one of my big things is i absolutely cannot stand scratchy clothing against my skin. the thing that i have found is some cotton itches and other cotton does not hear the sensory problems in this area but we need to be doing research. we need to be working on century issues. we have a lot of papers that show yes there defects in the circuits of the brain whether on facial recognition and things like that. we know all about that but we are not doing enough studies on how to deal with sensory problems. in one of the chapters of the book and my co-author has done a great job of getting a lot of material together. i have to thank richard for going throughout the dsm's and gett done.

one of my favorite chapters is the brain scans and of course i wanted to go out and tryout the latest brain scan technology. what basically showed up in the brain scans showed up in the classroom and at to the these i did. when it came to athletics i was good and strong and i could run really fast but when he came to skiing i could never keep them together. i found out my cerebellum was 20% smaller. i found out that my fears center, the amygdala the brain sphere center was larger and that would explain why i had so much anxiety problems. terrible anxiety problems. that is not controlled with antidepressant medication. there are a lot of people that are super anxious. we are a little bit of antidepressant can really help with a lot of the scans that turned man was a scan done in 2006 and scientists at the

university of pittsburgh and carnegie mellon found i had a great take huge visual track. that would explain my visual thinking. then i found out that my math department -- because i have cerebral spinal fluid in my left cortex so that trashed out multitasking. one of the things i can't do is i can't remember long sequences of information. when i was in graduate school there were 10 steps for setting up. dari: equipment for milking the cows and to have them written on the list. if i didn't have that list i would have been in a lot of trouble and would have had to make my own list. seeing all those brain scans was really interesting and in the future we will be able to do precise diagnoses with brain scans. the greatest image invented by walter schneider at the university of pittsburgh and you r thfunding that wase depart

originally developed for head injuries and it maps white matter fiber tracts. they looked at my circuit in my brain for. >> what i see and my circuit has greatly reduced bandwidth. that explains why at trouble getting speech out and my. >> what i hear circuit was really tiny. in the future they will be able to use this kind of scanning to figure out exact weight where the problem is. sensory issues are very variable. sometimes you have language problems. sometimes kids. >> just fine but they have absolutely no idea what the tv commercials mean because the meaning of the circuit is probably not hooked up. one of my favorite chapters is where i talk about the different kinds of minds. when i first wrote thinking -- i thought everybody was of photo

realistic visual thinker like me. i thought everybody on the autism spectrum thought that way. they kind of told me that not everybody on the spectrum thinks that way. so then i started interviewing people about how they think. everything i think about is like a photo realistic depiction. if i think about the united airlines terminal in chicago i see its glass structure and i i am seeing a crystal palace and now i am seeing a biosphere in arizona are greenhouse at colorado's state and kind of a glass structure category but they are all specifically glass structures or the airport category. i started seeing scenes of different airports. this dingy old hangar that they had. when i drive by i see this interesting stuff and i really

like to explore it for all kinds of interesting views. that is one of the images that i have for laguardia airport and of course denver is intense. that is my image for the denver airport. now the more i got to thinking about it different types of minds need to work together. i am a photo realistic visual thinker. everything is in pictures. i couldn't do algebra. there are a lot of kids who can't do algebra but they can do geometry. you can go on to let them do geometry and then another kind of kid on the high-end of the spectrum the math geniuses. this is the pattern of the thinking mind. they don't think in pictures. they think in patterns. in your brain you have got two kinds of visual circuits. you have circuits for what is something and then you have circuits for where is something. the mind is the where is something. these kids often have trouble with reading, so start seeing in

third grade that the kid is good at math, let him take more math. don't let him to baby math. another kind of find is the word -- the guy who knows all the facts about his favorite music stars and baseball players whatever the thing is that he really likes. i always get asked by parents how can i tell what kind of a thinker my child is? well, it often shows up around seven, eight or nine years old. visual thinkers like me like to do art and the mathematical minds like mathematics and they like to do legos and buildings and visuals like to build things. the writers are good at writing and then you have some thinkers that it's all words. they are just kind of in math. then you have auditory learners. dyslexic students, she could learn anything through vision and the reason she didn't learn anything through vision is because you have a lot of visual

processing problems. sometimes visual images with get distorted. we need to have the different types of minds working together. i founded my own projects i can visualize things but then i've got to have someone who knows the engineering staff to do the engineering staff. let's look at something like the fukushima nuclear power plant. that is a project that needs a visual thinker like me because the reason why the reactors burned up is they made a mistake no visual thinker would ever make. i can't design a nuclear year but i wouldn't have put the emergency cooling equipment for the emergency cooling and the generators that run the emergency cooling in the basement that was not waterproof. that is what they did. diesels don't work under water very well and all i have to know about a nuclear reactor is it that pump doesn't work there so much trouble it's not funny and

yes maybe the basement with submarine doors and sometimes, something that will keep it dry i understand that. that is where we need a different minds. even working on my book "the autistic brain" richard was my organization and also he did the heavy lifting on the genetics chapter lifting up the heavy stuff but that is another example of different minds working together. on the movie, the mother autistic child the producer of the movie, took a long time to get the right team of people. then they have mick jackson and cristobal -- christopher monger the writer. jackson really understood by visual thinking and the movie did a great job of showing it. that was another example of different kinds of minds working together. one thing that is universal across the spectrum is what is called automatic thinking. everything is learned by specific example. you want to teach a kid what up means, then you go up the hill and up the escalator. i jump up.

i walked up a hill. you have to give a bunch of different specific examples. i think government since we are inside the beltway here we need to have a lot more bottom-up thinking. one of the things that really worries mean government today is abstract identification. you give people with a degree in in political science and then they go and work in government but they don't know anything about the practical world on how those policies are going to affect mr. jones over here and sally over here and somebody else over here. ..

i am seeing kids today who don't know how to go to the counter at the restaurant and order food. he will go to the counter and get it himself and we will start out when it is not busy or noisy. don't just put them in the deep end. you don't do that. but remember, no surprises. you have got to stretch. when i was 59 is afraid to go to my aunt's ranch. it was two weeks or one week or all summer but not going was not going to be the issue. i am seeing too many

individuals, becoming a video game playing recluse. i have a lot of trouble in high school, the worst part of my life, i was teased and teased and got kicked out of school. and i went to special boarding school. the first two years i was there i didn't do any studying but you know what i learned how to do? i learned how to work. i was really proud of the fact that i basically ran the thing. it was a lot of hard work but i got satisfaction from that and i think the head master realize that and when i was 13 doing a little selling job and they had to shingle roof. i learned how to work. did discipline of work and a bunch of internships, one of my internship put that research lab and had to rent the with another

lady so i had a ton of work skills and when i went to arizona working on masters, to the arizona state flare, put me to work and might have shown how to do feelings. and to the editor of the ranch, a got his car just like in the movie and started writing for magazines. one little article lead time and painted some signs for some figures and that grew into designing things. it was one little project at a time. that was how i filled up my christmas and people thought it was really weird but when i showed my portfolio, you have to sell your works rather than yourself. i showed people my drawings and my work and the other thing to figure out of -- how to get in the back door. one thing i learned is you never know where you will meet the

person you show your portfolio to. get your kids's are work on your phone or computer programming on your phone, not only put your good self on, people put a lot of rubbish in their portfolio. if you learn things like sex, religion and politics, don't need those subjects that work, just park it at home, extreme views on those topics are not welcome. we need to find an employer that will work, makes mistakes or says something inappropriate. when the boss slams down the deodorant, you stink, use it, that actually happened. i was growing upset at the time but i thank him so much for that because it really bothers me to see smart kids going nowhere because they haven't learned discipline, discipline doing work and we need to teach work

skills, 12 years old, we don't have paper routes anymore. how about walking dogs for people. doing something, they got to do every day, there is discipline to that. or working at the farmer's market, shopping for groceries for old folks, making power point presentations, fixing computers. the other thing is we have got to get kids involved in shared interests. they get these special interests, get them into the robotics club, or a sketch of club where they do 3d drawings or the school play or banned or music, the only places i was not seized were special-interest things, students who build model rockets, i was one of those, they were not doing the teasing. then i had my great science teacher who got me motivated to

study. mentors is another important thing. i finished the formal part of my talk before we get into questions, two likes down here for questions, is autism such a big spectrum? difficult for teachers to shift gears whether it is nonverbal worse somebody who should be working in silicon valley. it is all called autism and that is a difficult thing. kind of relate to kids that are more like me and i want to see them go out and succeed in. i talked to a parent last night, their son is happy running the electronic projection equipment in the movie theater in new york, they got him out of the house and turning into a recluse and he became an usher and didn't quite that so migrated to the attic with all the electronic things that run the movies and he is running that. that is an example of the back door lost and a

great job for 12-year-old, museum tour guide to. a lot of museums take 13 years old and got to learn how to greet people, don't stop them in the museum or stand -- they got to learn those things. when i am going to do right now, line up some mics and switch back and forth and we will get some good discussion going to because that is the part we will like. get on up here. [applause] >> pick somebody. get the question of of the floor. go-ahead. we have an icebreaker here, good. is this on? it is on. >> a bcu to break the ice. i don't have a good question. i don't have words for my

admiration for you. you talk about limited vulnerability. my husband hanging on to understand something, he speaks very fast. i don't see -- i wouldn't diagnosed u.s. anything. >> a person with autism keeps improving. this is why you got to get them out and expose kids to interesting things and get them interested in interesting things. i got fixated on of the collusion, if i hadn't seen that i wouldn't have gotten interested. i couldn't figure out why they call me tape recorder. i always use the same phrases. get out and get more information like the database of the mind. imagine an empty internets full of stuff. to understand something in the future i have to relate it to something in the database. really good google, found extra

fibers out here. >> a follow-up little bit from that, i hear you're reading and speaking the first chapter when i was waiting, my husband can't stand wildlife in crowded places. >> these in the continual. >> my daughter can't stand the feeling -- i can't stand being crowded in the back of an elevator. rihanna spectrum of the dozen different directions like this one has to do with -- >> it is a point, to see these trades, genetics is incredibly complicated. >> tiny variations in brain development, tons and tons of them. the mild forms are, quote, normal variations but half of people will not make eye level jobs. they are nonverbal, they have sensory problems so bad they have difficulty just doing daily living skills and they might do a simple job but unsupervised

housing. this is the problem. you have severe autism and they have a child that is so severe they can't do normal activities. five or six years old we could do normal activities like have sunday dinner. we could go to a movie, or not have a temper tantrum or go shopping in the supermarket and then individuals so severe you can't do that and autism with other problems connected with it. it is of big spectrum. there is a point when does moody become bipolar? co-manage portion -- and depression. it is a continuum. >> congratulations and thank you for everything you have done for animals. >> i can tell you it is a lot of work and things of gotten better but it will keep on improving,

80s and 90s. >> you came to admire -- i have two questions. what is could you make a few comments about empathy for animals before a slaughter and the second question i have is do you still do the squeezebox? >> let me answer those questions. one thing that helped me understand animals is the individual thing. animals in translation, i talk a lot about being a sensory based world, not word based. the first thing is to see what they were seeing, they would be rephrased vote reflection or a chain hanging down or a hose on the ground and if you got rid of these distractions -- i also found the behavior was the same as in the veterinary shoot. the amount of stress is about

the same in both places. being a visual thinker helps me to imagine and envision the dominant sense in an animal like chattel. people think they got to know they're getting slaughtered. that is something i had to answer when i first started and actually this whipped planned, this was in the 70s, it was fairly decent, they behaved the same way, if they knew they were going to get swatted they would jump out. these were very capable of jumping but they didn't. i get asked how can you care about animals and be involved in slaughtering them? cattle would never existed we have an -- they would never be there. we have to give them in life worth living. i can strongly about that. pushing animals biology too

hardware they get problems, i am very concerned about that. let's talk about the other thing. i don't use it anymore. it broke a few years ago and i never fix it but for some individuals the pressure is very common. doesn't work on everybody. the problem with autism is it is variable. >> thank you so much, honor to be here. my daughter is 4 years old and recently diagnosed with autism and have a lot of medical issues. going for a lot of feeding score is, we have been told the autism is not related and rehab seen that in your movie and i don't know -- >> the reason is i had and, yes and after going on the anti-depressant and stopped the

constant day anxiety and stress it went away end i didn't -- that is one of the things -- the reason why i was eating that is because i had a horrendous -- when i took the antidepressants it stopped my nervous system -- i don't have to do that anymore. >> i am curious, thinking about your work over the years, when i read your books and articles and see you online or on movies the applicability of much what you have written or describes to non artistic acumen and terms of guidance is something that has not been diagnosed and i am curious about that. >> one of the problems today is work skills, in the 50s they

taught social skills so more systematic way but today is a loser society, it hurts people with autistic tinted these more than normal kids who muddles through it. you got to teach them to shake hands and shows them how much pressure you do, that was taught in the 50s to kids. you g teach them. the other thing is you've got to learn that even in a job you love there's going to be some groundwork. i was proud of the fact -- there's one part of my job i hated. i had to carry bushel baskets up the stairs and the stalls and finally got a police is to rid of some i didn't have to do that. that was not fun but every job no matter how much you like the job has some grunt work and i am finding these young people today mildly on the spectrum don't

want to do that. >> you talked about how there was a autism that you would never take because it made famous in your life, and interesting because when i was diagnosed with as burgers eight years ago, i wish i could be cured, with a group of teachers autism. >> i would not want to be cured because i like to logical way that i think put on the other hand, i quit being a college professor first and when i said this before of, a slaughter plant for animal welfare, i said absolutely not. we have to raise the book tour around animal auditor trading

because that is my real job. it is really great to accept having as burgers but on the other hand seeing kids getting so hung up on autism they are not doing other things. autism is a very important part of who i am but it is secondary to my livestock work and i won't give a livestock work. i really like the livestock work. the other reason is i think i am a better role model, but still have a real job like teaching my class, the class that i teach. i have had situations where i do a talk, turnaround, do my class, turnaround and fly to new york again. that is not on the fun side of things. i think that is important. the employment thing is the other thing. we have autism and we are coburs ofty s

but that is another thing that is important. what do you do for a job? >> i work at the capitol. >> that is really good. what i am saying, congratulations -- diagnosis really being helpful is on relationships. 14 people on the spectrum, diagnosed in their 40s, 50s or 60s because their relationships were mixed up and the diagnosis really helped them but every single one of those people had a job and they had a job all their lives and supported themselves. a wide range of jobs from museum tour guide to computer person but in philip for of computer people. and paper routes when they be young and they have learned how to work and we got to show the world people on the spectrum can really do.

that is one of the things i learned. i had to sell myself my drawings of and that is what i did or proud of the fact you had a job and are keeping it. [applause] >> i read the revenue will tonight. thank you for coming. first time i heard you were doing this, the first of my grandchildren was diagnosed with autism. i have two grandchildren that have been severely damaged and it was heling.ul for me, provid me with hope for the future but sometimes i feel that we were talking about -- >> this is the problem. there are two groups. this is a real problem. when i was a little kid, i was severely autistic, no language -- we got to go in and got to do

that, can't let 3-year-olds in the corner but once you do early intervention, it divides into groups. one is more like me and some are very severe and then you have a few at have a walk in syndrome, typing independently, describe a century jumprobe world where th cannot control their movements. there is a good brain hidden inside a person doing all this kind of stuff. >> i really feel there is more than that because my grandchildren were born normal, they exceeded the developmental scale, they got skill and regret and the youngest one lost everything, even lost his shoes. and bang his head, pull his hair

out and bounce so high on his buttocks that he had permanent greasing. his love -- and then adopted suggestion that we do intravenous because they felt he had standard pediatric -- from the first, very suspenseful treatment, helped by the motions doing anything you can and he has one treatmen tha him and his brother have one treatment every month, six months from the first treaoneent. >> that is really good. i have to go on to somebody else but that is really good. one of the problems in autism is it is a behavioral profile. it is not a precise diagnosis. we will find severe cases that there are other things.

>> you mentioned colitis, we went to g i specialist and had ulcers. >> the g i problems go with autism. another bad thing that happens is you might have a child with one severe problem and gastrointestinal proprobems but since he has this label of autism he is not getting treated ng.or the gastrointestinal problems. when you have a behavior proprom especially that is nonverbal you have to rule out in painful medical problems and gastrointestinal is basic number one. after starting with acid refluh, and look at your infections, yeast infections. >> comfortable in their own bodies and starting to interact. >> they are not in complete pain all the time and bad things where a kid gets an autism label and he has autism, it is like is autism is a gastrointestinal issue and that is just wrong.

hakim from of my books have been translated into spanish. thinking on random.com livestock website, the most positive thing to translate into spanish. you have to go on spanish-language websites and put my name in, and my first book is in spanish. >> edition, my son is autistic

and this is a category that he likes to draw and he draws beautiful pictures, he looks at the pictures exactly like he is looking for what he sees but when he does that -- >> some of these kids there are different reasons for doing that. i remember -- an hour after lunch, things to calm down but the problem is there are some kids, they have to control it. >> i don't know if you experienced that but he went with -- >> there are different reasons, you can do repetitive behavior to calm down. that is one reason. you do it because you get excited and can't control it and the other thing is it is like to

read syndrome --tourette's. that the different disorder. there are different disorders. in the future, take awesome, cut it into its component parts, the communications aspect is a true -- put that off as a separate thing, like an idea to the autistic you have a communication problem with fixated behavior and repetitive behavior. and to start looking at these, it is not true with everybody with autism and not true everybody has an enlarged visual threat. mathematicians don't have water in their parietal area. this is where there is variation. the most common is the problem

of face recognition. take a bunch of people and put them in a scanner you will find that. what is too bad about that is technology for looking at face recognition and recognizing emotional faces, that technology is over 10 years old but it is not being used. >> thank you for coming. you truly are inspiring. i have a 4-year-old son, the primary job since he was diagnosed is lack of the engagement and attention and internal -- >> 4 years old. would you doing for therapy? >> two hours of o t and about to start. >> you need to be -- little kids need 20 hours a week of one on one. people going out mortgaging the house don't do that but if you try to do it all yourself you are going to go crazy. get some students, some

volunteers and watch what your speech therapist does and what your four time person does and you need to do a lot more of that. people fight over which method they are going to use. the denver starch is different but the thing that is important is getting enough hours and an effective teacher -- teacher trying to persuade to pull them out of the kids because one our of speech a week is not enough and now is the time you got to act. don't wait. >> should you lean more towards therapy as opposed to the alternative, things like livery programs or things like that? >> in listening program might help but the most evidence based is the one on one therapies and what might be featured again and this may work on a listening program, and say puff and go, she alternates between the

regular way, so spoon and spoon, the problem is i have problems with hearing the hard consonants down. i have auditory processing problems and when you talk fast, i thought they had their own special language, so slow down. these will kids need a lot of interaction. play board games, board games are great, they teach about waiting your turn, those are things the most important thing to do right now is getting lots of hours of therapy. has she got any speech at all? >> does. >> his speech coming in? >> it is. >> get more hours in. time to put in the hours of one to one. some teachers have a mac and other teachers don't when you get something out. get some people to start looking.

>> thank you, my mom read your book in nearly 90s. he is 23 right now, and has ten words to be highly motivated. one of those kids that we did. >> kids like that know the word for real work and save work so he wants to do something. >> that is what we are struggling with. that little boy is going through and we are struggling with things you talk about, they come up with furies and programs to take advantage of. >> let's look at some pull things. you have pretty much nonverbal. how about showering? how about that? one of the things, you want to read how can i talk if i

stumbled? politics and prose and nonverbal, describes a sensory jumble, when keno describes what he learned about the t-shirt, slipped on really fast, he doesn't understand. got to take it really slow. five hole minutes to bring it down. and then slowly put his arm through the armhole because if you do it too fast he doesn't register it because the brain process is lower. things like that might help on things like dressing. other things like the touch schedule. some kids don't understand of visual schedule. visiting a group home a long time ago, they had a tough schedule, minutes. five minute speech for shower time they got a washcloth pull and before that, bust the hole.

and anything he likes to do. what does he like to do? >> the vcr. >> know how to work those famous the >> struggle the breakdown between care and trying to figure out how to any light. >> they need constant care. this is the problem with the spectrum and hopefully getting some plans in place for that. this is the problem with the autism spectrum, such a big specter of. and won't say he ought to get a job that microsoft. i think the sense sorry chapter will given site and also -- how

can i talk window mix don't move, insight into the sensory jungle world that he is in. >> -- 52. and find out in eighth grade so after being involved, graduated from college, holding two part-time jobs, a matter of progress in to the next level. >> looking at what you have to be >> i studied parks and recreation and what i studied two part-time jobs, like the

festival ends these facilities and the other's job was that a historic house, programs, t. butler. >> did you like the job? >> it has been six years. i live with my parents right now. before i graduated from college. relatively low -- >> their own importance. i was in graduate school and realized i had to make a slow transition to the world of work, getting masters and painting signs at the carnival and when i was doing that, make it clear, painting signs like himalayan

high school. and moving in that district, one of the things that is the problem. >> making sure before you came to speak suggesting that. [applause] >> a student who had a job here made a good salary and the rent was so high she lived in her sister's house, it is of real problem. one thing you might try locating from the east to arizona and in arizona. >> where i am. >> one of the problems is you have to go outside your comfort

zone, got to stretch, when i was 15 years old and was afraid to go to my aunt's ranch, where do you let me not go? and set up internships like my own house for someone else, that was another example of stretching and i have to stretch. it may be too expressive. >> and -- what is much better? >> my career, recreation, possibly something to do with analysts and two part-time jobs in six years. >> you like that? got to find something you liked.

>> and driven a tee bone steak last night, i was able to retrieve that. i tried to bring that back to the prospect. >> you have got to find something you like to do. we need to belong to the next question. [applause] >> i lived in a school with a lot of autistic children and the problem seems to be kids picking get themselves, gets to be a big problem i don't know if it is frustration.

>> some kids get better -- you say they get too much exercise. another thing showing up in the literature is omega 3 supplements very good for the brain. i get a lot of pitching allover at night and i am taking be 100s and magnesium at night and that stocks kicking at night and they're scratching themselves, that might work and someone working with an old team and sensory activities and the pressure. >> talking about autistic people, i wonder if you wouldn't mind my asking about an animal. by dog wasn't socialized.

he was rescued and very fearful dog. for example, very difficult for him to walk out of the house, he really doesn't like -- i drive him and in the car, gets out and walks the doesn't like to not a

abuse. >> the back door of the house. >> and he has a way of filing. >> really afraid he is doing that. >> i don't like -- it makes it worse. she is pretty much afraid of everything but other dogs. >> afraid of other dogs. >> he is not afraid of other dogs. he accepts his donors and -- >> sounds like this dog could have been abused. the also could have been kept

isolated. there was absolutely no socialization. you can do things to make them better. >> don't expect to complete the andit. that can solve -- >> that is insured. >> let's go on to the next question. >> talk about animals and everything. the most violent aspect of pet therapy? >> people with autism, works great on some individuals. the first time, some best buddies, the next time, scared of them but then warm up to them and that the third time, hate dogs because they never know when they are going to bark and dogs are scary things and hurt careers. in that situation using the

animal is not appropriate. when it comes to horse therapy, my parents taught me -- you're doing rhythm and balancing and involving rhythm and balance, often helpful. you can also do that with swinging and sitting -- for some it is absolutely great. >> four more questions, two from each microphone. >> i am a huge fan. >> you got a western drill. >> i do not obviously. and wildlife major at the university of maryland, appreciate the work you do for animals and animal welfare. i personally -- i feel like they really concentrate and come down sometimes. never diagnosed on the opposite

spectrum. and wanted to know about your connection to animals. and my educational background. >> the thing about helping animals is think more like an animal. animals don't think in verbal language. they think in pictures, they think in smells and touch sensations. so much more specific kind of thinking. is not abstract. that helped me with my work with animals and i got a lot of insight when i realized my thinking was -- when i was a teenager, i didn't know my thinking was different. i find people are sensitive, very much have a hard time understanding. this is where there are different kinds of lines and

being a visual thinker helps. i really like cattle. >> i became aware of you through your book animal translation because of my issues on erratic behavior. it opened my world to make me realize -- i just got diagnosed low end asberger's at age 30. >> what you doing now? >> i am a technical analyst for the united states department of energy. >> you better keep that job. [applause] >> superbenefits. >> so the nuclear weapons program. >> you got a good job and need to keep it. >> question is going back to

your book on social relationships, of the ten social roles coming to social communication which one would you consider the most pivotal one in trying to socially connect with people on a mortgage level. >> i connect people with shared interests, animal behavior, horses, talking about engineering stuff, and most on the spectrum with a good relationship, you may want to read this different book too because these people got diagnosed because relationships were messed up, not because of their employment but relationships. one spouse has to ask for a response and it is monstrous and also an e-book out on asberger.

>> try to -- >> some of those things might help you. where i have seen successful relationships is i have a friend named jennifer myers who wrote a book on living skills and she is a computer curzon and married to another computer person and they met in a science-fiction meeting and had no wonderful romantic dating session. a really nice restaurant, all that good stuff because you have to set the stage for four hours of discussion on computer data storage systems. the most interesting thing in the world is computer data storage. you will find a soulmates in the work you do, is a mathematical or statistical? what is it you do or is it classified? >> it is a wide variety of things. combination of chemistry and physics and mathematics,

engineering. >> a lot of tech stuff. you are at take the --a techie. get involved with another tacky. get a super good job and you need to keep it. you need to get a soul mate that is interesting in those kinds of things. >> another big bang theory tight. >> that is right. absolutely right. [applause] >> how did you get over being so anxious when you were little? >> when i was in graduate school i did my first talk on panic and walked out. one of the things that helped me in my early 30s was anti-depressant medication. some people are superanxious with some help from biochemistry

and a tiny little bit of prose that course something, have a chapter on thinking and pictures, a believer in biochemistry and i find us visible thinkers. we tend to be panicked monsters because i know a lot of designers take a little bit of prozac because you don't want to mess up with alcohol. looks like you are in karate. sorry. i don't know how to read blocks. okay. >> something funny. >> probably finding -- another thing i found that helps me is 100 situps i do every night on the bed. every night i'd do them.

>> thank you. thank you. >> you are very welcome. [applause] >> i was wondering, do you think has it been your experience that men and women have different experiences? that is related to i was wondering. >> when i was a young kid wasn't interested in anything, party, dresses and dolls. when i took that systematizing test in the back of the autistic frame scored high on systematizing. the thing that doesn't hold up is most people on the spectrum are not real masculine and muscular but there is maybe something, getting exposed to

testosterone because even as a young child wasn't interested in playing house or anything like that. >> there's a theory that autistic women don't get diagnosed because they have a social force. >> they have better social skills. that tends to be the pattern and the reason is women in general don't have social skills. a [applause] >> one thing i found, hard breaking into a male-dominated industry, the thing about guys, they get over it. they don't hold a grudges. a little yelling match ended is over with. that is just -- what i found. what do you do? i used to and? >> going to law school this

year. >> get lots of good job experience. i hate to keep harping on the clear stuff but too many smart people not getting good jobs and losing good jobs because they don't show up for work on time. get a good job there will be some groundwork. thank you all for coming. [applause] >> for more information visit the author's web site, villasenor.com. >> this system of mass incarceration is so deeply rooted in our social, political

and economic structure is not going to just fade away. out of side. we have a major upheaval, fairly radical shift in our public consciousness. i know there are many people today who will say there is no hope of ending mass incarceration in america. there is no hope, pick another issue. just as many people were resigned to jim crow and the south, that is a shame but just the way that it is, so many people today pusey million cycling in and out about prisons and jails are an unfortunate but in alterable fact of american life. i am quite certain that dr. king would not have been so resigned so i believe if we are truly truly to honor dr. king, if we

are to ever catch up with dr. king we have got to be willing to continue his work, we have to be willing to pick up where he left off and to the hard work of movement building on behalf of poor people of all colors. in 1968 dr. king told advocates the time had come to transition from civil rights movement to a human rights movement. meaningful equality cannot be achieved through civil rights alone without basic human rights, the right to work, the right to shelter, the right to quality education, without basic human rights, he said, civil rights are an empty promise. in honor of dr. king and all those who labored to end the old jim crow we will commit ourselves to a human rights movementend mass

incarceration. the movement for education, not incarceration, a movement for jobs, not jails, movement to end these forms of legal discrimination against people, discrimination that denies them basic human rights to work, to shelter and to food. what must we do to begin this movement? we have got to begin by telling the truth, though whole truth. we have got to be willing to admit out loud that we as a nation have managed to recreate cast like system in this country. we have got to be willing to tell the truth in our schools, in our churches and places of worship, behind bars and the new reentry centers. we have got to be willing to tell the truth so that a great awakening to the reality of what has occurred can come to pass. because the reality is not that the new cast light system doesn't come with signs.

there are no whites only signs anymore, no signs alerting us to the existence of this system of mass incarceration and prisons today are out of sight and out of mind. often hundreds of miles away from communities and families that might otherwise be connected to them and the people whose cycle in and out of these prisons typically live in segregated, impoverished communities, communities that middle-class folks, upper-middle-class folks barely come across. so you can live your whole life in america today having no idea that this system of mass incarceration and the harm it reeks even exists. we have got to be willing to tell the truth about what has occurred. pull back the curtain and make

visible what is hidden in plain sight. so that an awakening can begin and people can begin to take the kind of creative, constructive action this moment in our history surely requires. a lot of consciousness raising is not enough, we will be willing to get to work. and in my view that means we have got to be willing to build an underground railroad for people released from prison. an underground railroad for people who want to make a genuine break for real freedom, people who want to escape this system and find work, find shelter, support their families, find true freedom in america today. we have got to be willing to open our homes, open our schools, open our work places to people returning home from prison and provide support for

the families who have loved ones behind bars today. how do we create these things? one thing we can certainly do, we can begin to admit our own criminality out loud. our own criminality. the truth is we have all made mistakes in our lives. we all have. over -- all of us are sinners, all of us have done wrong, all of us have broken the law at some point in our lives. if you are an adult you have broken the law at some point in your life. some people will say oh yeah, i am a sinner, have made mistakes but don't call me a criminal, don't call me a criminal. i say okay maybe never you drank underage, maybe you never experimented with drugs. the worst thing you have done in

your entire life is speed 10 miles over the speed limit on the freeway, you have put yourself and others it more risk of harm than someone smoking marijuana in the privacy of their living room. but there are people in the united states serving a life sentences for first-time drug offenses. light sentences. the u.s. supreme court upheld life sentences for first-time drug offenders against an eighth amendment challenge that such sentences were pull and unusual land violation of the eighth amendment and the supreme court said no, it is not cruel and unusual punishment to sentence the young man to life in prison and for a first-time drug offense. no other country in the world does such a thing. we have got to end this idea that the criminals are them, not us. and instead say there but for the grace of god go i.. all of us have made mistakes in our lives, taken wrong turns but

only some of us have been required to pay for those mistakes for the rest of our lives. president barack obama himself has admitted to more than a little bit of drug use in his lifetime. he has admitted to using marijuana and cocaine in his youth. if he hadn't been raised by white grandparents in hawaii, if he hadn't done much of his illegal drug use in predominately white college campuses and universities, if he had been raised in the hood, the odds are good that he would have been stopped, he would have been frisked, he would have been searched, he would have been caught and far from being president of the united states today he might not even have the right to vote depending on the state he lives in. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> there is no word that relates

more than the a word, addiction. i do try to use it sparingly because they rather convincingly argue that there are some differences between food cravings and narcotic cravings, certain technical threshold's, however when they talk about the allure of their foods their language can be so revealing they use words like craveable, snackable, mauritius. >> salt sugar fact is our selection this month, watch more of the of michael moss at booktv.org and for the next week or so share your thoughts and see what others are saying on twitter@hash tag be tv book club and join our live moderated discussion on line at social sites, tuesday, may 28th at 9:00 eastern. >> you are watching the tv and

we are live now from the 2013 gaithersburg's book festival. here's our lineup for today. in a minute john turner will present his biography on brigham young. melvin goodman talks about his book national insecurity:the cost of american militarism. .. the story of the bankers in charge of the top three world bank's during the recent financial