Temple Grandin’s theories - Autistic thinking patterns

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I like practical math.

I find algebra rather theoretical, and I have trouble "lining up" numbers, especially when I lack motivation. If solving an equation lead to a tangible result, such as that found in accounting, economics, or engineering, I'd probably be more motivated to be neat about lining up numbers.

If you screw up one step, you get the math problem wrong.

By the way, I'm not saying that algebra is useless. I'm saying that I lack motivation.

I'm a visual thinker. I relate very strongly to the thinking in pictures. If someone tells me "it's cold so I'll be wearing a coat", I instantly have a picture in mind of them wearing a coat. The images just appear in my mind, it's not a conscious thing.

I'm not very skilled at putting these images on paper though, so it's a bit useless really :/. Except for the pleasure of having images in my head. I wish I could be a wonderful artist, but no such luck.

When my brain sees equations it just switches off. I hate doing mental arithmetic too. I can do mental sums but I have to really force myself through it and it takes me ages. I can just use a calculator so I don't see the point.

Now that I think about it, I mentally picture what I read or hear, too. But it's not very detailed or vivid. Temple Grandin says that when she hears a word, she pictures a series of vivid, specific examples of that object. I'm not like that. And I'm not very good with art or visual-spatial tasks.

I can't completely choose one category, just like with the social strategies (passive, active-but-odd, etc.).

I'm mainly verbal-logical, but I often see pictures when I hear words or read things. I remember spoken words best. I am ok at drawing, and I have reasonable math skills. I'm rubbish at practical math problems and do better at algebra.

The categories are useful if trying to teach someone or understand their mindset. I hope people don't try to take this literally though and try to shove every autistic person, or anyone else, into one of these categories.

I'm good at verbal, mathematical/logical stuff and patterns, but I am really, really bad at any kind of visual thinking and mental rotation. I also suspect I have developmental disorientation disorder, since I cannot form any mental maps.

But people can be good at all three things and people can be bad at all three of them. There might be correlations (haven't read any studies about that), but in case of Temple Grandin, that's just overgeneralizing.