The second floor lounge of the Holmes Student Center was awash with excitement as people lined up for a book signing by an individual who is a hero for the neurodiverse.
Neurodiversity can be defined as how brains work in different ways, and no one knows that better than esteemed animal behaviorist Temple Grandin.
Grandin is one of the most important autistic figures in recent history as she promotes how people who are neurally diverse can change the world with their unique way of thinking. She has been celebrated for her revolutionary contributions to handling livestock, like a cattle chute that reduces stress. Her invention, the squeeze machine, was created to provide deep touch pressure to ease sensory overload for autistic individuals.
The “Great Minds Are Not All the Same” event was hosted by NIU STEAM. It had a sensory activities area in the Capitol Room of the Holmes Student Center, a meet and greet at the College Grind where people can engage with Chase the therapy dog, a book signing by Grandin herself in the Galley Lounge and Grandin’s speech in the Duke Ellington Ballroom.
If attendees got overwhelmed, the Carl Sandberg Auditorium acted as a low-sensory space to re-center people. Kristin Brynteson, head of NIU’s STEAM program, says that it was associate professor of Interdisciplinary Health Professions Bryan Dallas’s idea to start with as he reached out to her to explore the ideas of what neurodiverse people could accomplish. Her main takeaway was that she was excited to see people learn about neurodiversity.
Humaira Zaheer, a senior human and health science major, expressed her enthusiasm that the event is open to the public.
“An important aspect of the event was to keep it open for all to learn and experience,” said Zaheer.
Renn Kaminski, a first-year meteorology major, said the event was really cool and the importance was to help people better understand neurodiversity. She was very supportive of making the event a learning instance.
“Neurodiversity is not a widely covered topic in classes, so the fact that NIU did this is really special,” said Kaminski.
Grandin’s presentation on how we need more people who are neurodiverse was quite insightful. She gave examples of how people learn whether they think in pictures or they think in patterns. She provided stories from her life growing up in the ‘50s on how she would prove to people that the labels given to her were not what defined her. She also advocated for autistic children to do more hands-on activities like shopping by themselves and to hone in on social skills.
Dr. Grandin is an incredible individual who wanted to spread her message that there are different ways to think about the NIU community. Her words have inspired many people like her: the object visualizers, the mathematicians, the verbal thinkers.
