Considered the most influential Autism speaker and humane animal treatment activist in the world, Dr. Temple Grandin has changed the face of slaughter house designs and functions immensely throughout the United States. She gives speeches and lectures around the country informing people of Autism and its effects, as well as how best to treat Autism in its young victims. She is a symbol of hope and perseverance to those affected by Autism and even those who aren’t, proving that with determination and hard work, anything can be achieved. Autism has slowed her down in many areas of her career, but it was never enough to stop her from becoming an engineer of the most popular and most accepted livestock handling plants and regulations in the country.
Grandin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to parents Richard Grandin and Eustacia Carter, on August 29, 1947. At the age of two, she was diagnosed with brain damage and, that same year, diagnosed with Autism. Grandin’s parents refused to send her to an institution and tried as hard as they could to help Temple learn how to talk. She was soon placed in a structured nursery school with teachers and staff who had special training in Autism. At the age of four, Grandin began talking and making moderate progress in developing her social and motor skills. She spent most of her childhood at home where a nurse, hired by her family, watched over her and attempted to keep her from some of her Autistic habits. Grandin admits that her teens were the worst times of her life. She was the nerdy girl in school who everyone made fun of and would call “tape recorder” because she would often repeat the same thing over and over again. Her parents placed her and took her out of many private schools, refusing...
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Grandin, Temple. Animals in Translation. New York: Scribner, 2005. Print.
Grandin, Temple. Thinking in Pictures: and Other Reports from My Life with Autism. New York: Doubleday, 1995. Print.
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Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism, written by Temple Grandin is a non-fiction novel based on the author’s life growing up with autism. The author also shares her life now including her job, medical journal, and an autobiography. However, many things such as thoughts, treatment, and medication has changed since the book was written. The copyright of the novel is Second Vintage Books Edition, January 2006, published in the United States. The novel includes pictures of the author’s childhood, current age, and her work located towards the middle of the novel. Thinking in Pictures can be purchased online from Amazon for around ten dollars and the ISBN thirteen digit number is 978-0-307-27565-3.
Office of Communications and Public Liaison. (2013, November 6). NIH. Retrieved from National Institute of Neurological Disorder and Stroke: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/autism/detail_autism.htm#243513082
Before completing the assignment of reading “Thinking in Pictures,” by Temple Grandin, I did not have much knowledge about autism. My only understanding was autism was some sort of neurological disorder that is seen similar to mentally handicapped individuals to someone with little understanding, like myself. I am very thankful to have been given an assignment like this one that gives me more knowledge of something I should already have in my line of work (though I am sure that was the whole purpose of the assignment, to educate the ignorant). I now have a better understanding of the cause, learning process and functioning of different levels of this defect.
Ramachandran, Vilayanur S., and Lindsay S. Oberman. "Broken Mirrors: A Theory of Autism." Scientific American Journal. (2006): 62-69. Web. 29 Nov. 2013.
What is Autism? It’s a developmental disorder that impairs one’s ability to communicate and interact with others. Christopher Boone from the novel A Curious Incident in the Nighttime and Temple Grandin, who has become one of the top scientists in the humane livestock handling industry both fall on the high-functioning spectrum of autism. Even so, they do not display the exact same traits and behaviors. Whereas Grandin thinks in pictures and employs this unique gift for practical use, Christopher thinks in patterns and fails communicate his talents with others. However, they both speak their mind and have trouble understanding facial expressions and emotions.
The Case of Temple Grandin paints a picture of a young woman’s determination and hard work while struggling with autism during a time when the disorder was unknown. This case discusses Grandin’s challenges, early diagnosis, growth and development in school, and support from her mother. Temple Grandin could not speak like the other children at the age of two, so because doctors could not find any physical issues she had been subsequently labeled as brain-damaged. To communicate with others, she would throw tantrums and scream. She could speak by three and a half years old with the help of speech therapy. A few years later at the age of five, Grandin was diagnosed with autism so her mother worked with her 30 minutes every day to keep her from being placed in an institution. At her aunt’s ranch, Grandin develops the “squeeze machine” a device used to apply pressure without being stimulating. Grandin excelles in school and receives her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Franklin Pierce College in 1970. After her graduation from college in 1970, Grandin attends Arizona State University where she earns a master’s degree in cattle in 1975. In 1989, Grandin earns her doctoral degree from the University of Urbana-Champaign in animal science. Grandin has never married, but she is proof that individuals with autism can lead productive and notable lives (Meyer, Chapman, & Weaver, 2009).
In Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism By Temple Grandin, the center of novel surrounds Grandin’s life and how autism impacted her career at a very young age. The book includes references to extensive reviews of research pertaining to effects of autism and possible treatment options. Grandin (2006) articulates how the word “autism” still conveys a fixed and dreadful meaning to most people (p.1). Therefore, she was able to embrace her visual ways of thinking, ultimately being an inspiration to others. With insight from her personal experience, readers have a better understanding of what is like working with individuals who have physical impairments. However, this paper will focus on how Grandin’s autistic ability affected her relationships
People living with autism spectrum disorders have different ways of interpreting and navigating the world around them. Temple Grandin gives insight on what life is like living with an autism spectrum disorder within her novel, Thinking in Pictures. Within her book, Grandin discusses how she herself lives with autism as well as others she has met. She reflects on her experiences of growing up, gaining an education and working within the cattle industry. Temple Grandin partially attributes her successes to her visual thinking process, though it’s not perfect, and her mother’s influence on her environment, an often unchecked stimulus.
“If I could snap my fingers and be not be autistic, I would not. Autism is a part of who I am,” stated Temple Grandin. (Brainyquotes) People with autism are treated or looked at differently by the population. Autistic people usually experience difficulty in communicating or acting in an appropriate social manner. Most children with autism are diagnosed by the age three, yet there are still adults that might have autism and not know it. People with autism have brains that work in an uncommon way. Yet one very special autistic person is named Temple Grandin used her autism and the strong visual thinking ability that goes along with it, to understand the world around her. Temple Grandin’s characteristic persistency and sharp-wittedness helped
Slaughter, Virginia, Ph.D. "Autism." Magill’S Medical Guide (Online Edition) (2013): Research Starters. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
First off, autism is not a form of mental retardation despite what the general public may have you believe. In actuality, autism, which was first described by Kanner (1943) in his study of 11 children with “autistic disturbances of affective contact” (US: American Psychological Ass...
"A Parent's Guide to Autism Spectrum Disorder." NIMH RSS. N.p., 2011. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.
The title of the book is called, “Thinking in Pictures”, written by Temple Grandin. Temple is also the author of, “Animals in Translation.” This book was copyrighted in the year 1995 and was edited with more updated information in the year 2006. Thinking in Pictures is an autobiography. An autobiography is a book written about their lives, written by themselves.Throughout this book multiple pictures were shown when she was a younger child of her showing symptoms of autism, blueprints and designs of her work, and pictures of her giving lectures and informing others of Autism. There are multiple severity levels of autism, Temple was a high functioning autistic individual, with that being said she was able to write a book about her life. Temple is a very gifted animal specialist and has shown multiple times throughout the novel to never give up and that possibilities and endless.
Grandin was born in Boston Massachusetts. Grandin was diagnosed with autism in 1949 at the age of two; she was said to have brain damage and placed early in nursery school. Dr. Mary Temple Grandin was a college professor of Animal Sciences at Colorado State University (Temple Grandin, n.d.). She has influenced my life the most through Livestock Behavior, Design of Facilities, and Humane Slaughter (Dr. Temple Grandin's Web Page , n.d.).
Like any child with a developmental or learning disability, people often define the lives of children with autism by their condition rather than who they really are on the inside. Cariello faced this very problem. Even while her son Jack was still a baby, Cariello felt the nagging sensation that her precious son experienced life differently. After performing numerous diagnostic tests, the blue folder that contained all of Jack’s personal information began to fill up fast. In the eyes of the health professionals working with Jack, the folder’s information that detailed his struggles and weaknesses soon began to define his character. Still, through it all, Cariello knew that her son was “beautiful inside, outside, and