Temple Grandin, Herding the Public Towards Smarter Autism Awareness

On February 6^th 2010, HBO presented an amazing film about an extraordinary woman named Temple Grandin. Temple Grandin is a professor of animal science, a world renowned designer of livestock handling systems, an author, and more importantly an Autism advocate. This movie is even more significant because Temple Grandin is herself autistic, high functioning, but still autistic. Asperger's Syndrome is considered to be high functioning Autism. Temple Grandin has managed to rise above her own autistic disorder to excel in her specific field of animal science to educate and herd the public towards a smarter understanding of Autism.

One out of a hundred and ten children are diagnosed with Autism, with one out of seventy boys being diagnosed according to, Autism Speaks, an Autism awareness website. Personally my adult son's diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. Temple Grandin's life story affected me because of the remarkably similar autistic traits running throughout her story and her mother's fight to deal with a relatively unknown disorder.

Temple Grandin's verbal skills as a child were practically barren. Frustrated she exhibited anger, rage, and periods of screaming. Her mother was informed by medical doctors that Temple would never survive in society and should be institutionalized. Temple Grandin's mother refused to believe their advice and instead strove to assist her daughter by getting the best education and assistance so Temple could succeed and live independently in society. Temple Grandin eventually learned to communicate but being autistic her vocal tones are robotic, considered loud by most people.

Children and adults who are diagnosed with Asperger's or high functioning Autism usually have a skill or interest that they're extremely superb at, sometimes to the point of obsession. Temple Grandin lived in Texas and became drawn to watching the behaviors of livestock. Autistic children rarely show emotion or affection towards family or others, but tend to show affection and often relate better to animals. This interest allowed Temple Grandin to succeed in college and have a career in animal science. Having an extremely high intelligence, Temple Grandin was able to learn by absorbing everything, literal imagery in her mind. Once she read or studied something she was able to have total recall, a photographic memory.

Autistic individuals tend to have poor social skills, ritualistic behaviors, and fear towards attempting new things. Temple Grandin invented her own coping skills. To curb her frustration and stress level she viewed agitated cattle as they were inoculated held in a tight stockyard fencing and noticed they became calm. In high school she developed her own form of hug machine. Uncomfortable having human touch therefore unable to be hugged or comforted by human touch, Temple Grandin placed herself in her self-made hug machine and found it immediately lowered her stress levels. Other people noticing this strange contraption were perturbed at first, but today Temple Grandin's hugging machine is used to calm autistic children who can't tolerate human touch.

Temple Grandin and her interest in cattle behavior forced her to place herself in a macho cattle farmer's world, finding creative ways to fit in to suit her purpose. She interacted with people because of her interests and by doing this she made people aware of Autism. Temple Grandin started writing books about her interests, sharing aspects of her world of Autism. She successfully convinced cattle farmers to use her model of handling cattle to calm them as they entered the slaughter house. Her livestock handling system is now used at 1/3 of all cattle facilities in the USA.

Temple Grandin endured harsh stereotypes of people's views on mental illness, male oriented prejudice against women working in a man oriented field, and classmates and other people's cruel taunts. Temple Grandin now educates the public through her books and lectures, herding them to a smarter awareness of Autism.

Temple Grandin's movie on HBO with Claire Dane playing the part of Temple Grandin will open your eyes and teach you that with help and encouragement an autistic person can be a successful part of society. Temple Grandin continues to erase the fears and stigma of Autism, and offers encouragement to parents and caregivers. Please take the time to view this remarkable woman's life, read her books, and/or take in a conference where she's appearing. Her story is beyond a gift.

You can read further information about Temple Grandin by checking the link below.

Temple Grandin's Website: http://www.templegrandin.com/templehome.html Here you will find information about Temple's upcoming conference dates, her written list of books including her latest, "The Way I See It. A Personal Look at Autism and Aspergers," and other interesting information about her life.

To find out further information about Autism please click the link for Autism Speaks.

www.autismspeaks.org

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