Different Kinds of Minds

A Guide to Your Brain

By: Temple Grandin PhD, Ann D. Koffsky

Narrated by: Andrea Gallo, Temple Grandin PhD

Albert Einstein. Steve Jobs. Elon Musk. Katharine Johnson. These geniuses are all visual thinkers. Are you?

Do you like puzzles, coding, and taking things apart? Do you write stories, act in plays, slay at Wordle? The things you are good at are clues to how your brain works. Are you good at math? Working with your hands? Are you a neat freak or a big mess?

With her knack for making science easy to understand, Temple Grandin explains different types of thinkers: verbal thinkers who are good with language, and visual thinkers who think in pictures and patterns. You will discover all kinds of minds and how we need to work together to create solutions to help solve real-world problems.


* This audiobook edition ncludes a downloadable PDF of images from the book.

Critic reviews

"Accessible and engaging, this book has multiple curricular applications and will resonate with independent thinkers." —Booklist

Very Informative and relatable

As a person on the Spectrum I am glad that I got to listen to this Temple Grandin book. It was well researched and very informative. It made some very strong points about how autistic people are in many excluded from the workforce in this day and age because of our differences to the larger Neurotypical population.
She also did amazing explaining how a lot of autistic people are often times able to make stronger bonds with animals because we have a stronger capacity for empathy than some.

Different ways of learning

Thinking in just pictures has never occurred to me. . . I liked the examples of different kinds of learning.

A real eye opener

As a teacher, I think it’s important to learn to see things through the eyes of others. To understand that not everyone thinks the same is critical. This book was enlightening in the sense that it gave me a much better understanding of what others think, which I think will allow me to better tailor my teaching to my students' needs.

Everything! Starting it again

I love Temple Grandin’s explanation of the different gifts we all bring to the table. It would be great required reading for middle schools.

Uneven

Few can deny Temple Grandin can explain complex concepts in a user friendly manner. In DIFFERENT KINDS OF MINDS: A GUIDE TO YOUR BRAIN Grandin explains different ways of conceptualizing the world for a younger audience, likely YA readers.

I’ve read a number of Grandin’s books and DIFFERENT KINDS OF MINDS to be repetitive through different chapters. In trying to show the positive sides of autism and neurodiversity, she implies that hers is a superior way of thinking. In one chapter she speaks of disasters she could have prevented if she had been in charge of building a certain bridge or troubleshooting a design failure. I don’t think her intention was to imply she can prevent any problem but that someone who thinks like she does should have been in charge.

Her target audience may be neurodivergent teens who need help understanding their strengths and seeing their differences as good as or superior to their peers. After a few chapters touching on everything from child development to anthropomorphizing animals to airplane building from Piaget to Elon Musk to Einstein.

DIFFERENT KINDS of minds will be helpful to parents of autistic children and neurodivergent young adults.