Grandin said her sensory gifts also help her in engineering. She can design and modify complex objects, such as feedlots, in her head--a skill shared by many autistic people.

Grandin also spoke about autism in childhood development, calling for improvements in the way autistic children are nurtured.

Grandin said that "squeeze machines"--large devices that surround a person with gentle pressure--can help reduce anxiety in autistic children so that they can enjoy human contact. Grandin invented the first such machine as a teenager.

"We need to work on desensitizing autistic kids so they can be held," she said.

She added that autistic children should be encouraged to develop their special talents, rather than to learn "language thinking" like non-autistic children do.

"There is starting to be evidence that language may mask art talent." Grandin said. "We need to be building up on these talents. We give too much attention to deficits [in autistic children] and not enough to talents."

Grandin also described the ways in which her emotional life resembles that of animals.