Autism In Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin, a nice woman who loves animals and science grew up to be put in the hands of a disorder temple had gotten diagnosed with autism and refused to put her in a . Temple is done with high school and is nervous about college she is worried that she will not like it there and wants to stay with her teacher, Professor Carlock in high school. Her mother is very persistent and is used to this kind of behavior so Temple goes to college and studies animal husbandry. She is not used to having a roommate, so she get nervous and makes a hugging machine that calms herself. Her roommate hates it and want to get rid of it. Temple explains to the principal that she cannot go to college without it and still they throw it out. She makes another one during the summer and gets to keep it the next year. At the graduation Temple discovers that she wants to study the cattle plantations and goes to a nearby plantation to look at how they wash and kill the cattle.

Leo Kanner (1943) believes autism is a result of emotional deprivation. He notes that parents of autistic children are intellectually and analytically oriented, but lack emotional warmth (Meyer, Chapman, & Weaver, 2009).Some psychodynamic theorist believe autistic children were born normal, but became autistic after experiencing painful interactions with hostile or cold parents (Hansell & Damour, 2008). The term autistic implies a failure to effectively relate to the environment. Autistic individuals are perceived as elusive and distant (Meyer, Chapman, & Weaver, 2009). Behavioral programs are most effective with autistic children and are used to teach them language, communication skills, self-care, and adaptation to the community (Hansell & Damour, 2008).

Autism is a rare disease that can be characterized by a “neurodevelopmental disorder categorized by the inability to relate to and perceive the environment in the realistic manner.” (Anthes, 1997) The signs of autism are mainly found in infants to young children usually between the ages of newborn to two years. The main symptoms that are discussed are “impairment in social interaction fixation of inanimate objects, inability to communicate normally, and resistance to changes in their daily routine.” (Anthes, 1997) Autism is a very understood disease but one thing most people do not know is that autism not only effects a child’s life mentally and physically, it also effects their social ability to have friends, play normally and even grow up

Temple Grandin’s autobiographical book, Thinking in Pictures, opened the door that revealed the true aspects of autism. The author, who is an autistic woman, portrayed autism not as a complicated developmental disorder but as a unique characteristic that is a compliment to society. To break apart from society’s stereotype on autistic individuals, Temple focused her book on issues such as how her disorder was initially misdiagnosed, her issues with learning acceptable behavior and social cues, her connection with animal minds, sensory sensitivities, and explored the possible treatments with medication.

In “Carly’s Voice”, a book written by the father of an autistic child, the chapter “From the Horse’s Mouth” is Carly’s own words on her experience with autism. The challenge to understand autism comes from a lack of communication with autistic individuals but as Carly walks through her processing she explains her behaviours. The overstimulation that autistic individuals experience and the need for audio filtering, sorting out sensory information, helps tear down barriers of the view of what autistic individuals are capable of

Many of us have heard about Autism, also knows as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Some have a family member, a friend, or know someone who has ASD. Increasingly it is becoming a more common disability. “Autism is one of the fastest-growing developmental disorders in the U.S” (Autism Speaks). Autism has no respect for gender, race, social class and or ethnicity. “Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder that involves abnormal development and function of the brain.” (Autism Center of Excellence) People who have autism have a lot of difficulties with social skills, communication and also will develop behavior issues. These behavior problems of an individual with autism can vary at times and can go from mild to severe. According to the Autism Science Foundation it says,” Many people with the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) also have unusual ways of learning, paying attention, and reacting to different sensations. The thinking and learning abilities of people with ASD can vary—from gifted to severely challenged.” The causes and symptoms, as well as the diagnosis, and the treatments of autism vary.

Temple Grandin’s occupation as designing cattle equipment is a job that is complimentary to her autism. Her ability to “see” the design and visually construct and test the equipment before having it built gives her a huge advantage over the competition. Her error rate must be next to nothing. Of course her process of inventing equipment or improving a piece of machinery that has already been made may be easier due to the way she completes the scientific method.

Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism was written by Temple Grandin and originally published in 1995 in New York by Doubleday. The edition that I purchased was published in 2010 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. This book was written as an autobiography about Grandin’s life as an autistic child and adult. It also includes general information about autism, reference based medical information, effects and symptoms of autism, and possible treatment plans. In this expanded addition, Grandin included updates after every chapter that provides up-to-date information on research, medications, and Asperger’s syndrome.

“Temple’s most important innovations in design were accomplished not in spite of but because of her autism”. Says Sy Montgomery, the author of “Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World”. When someone has autism, it doesn’t mean they are dim-witted or different from everyone else. Temple Grandin inherited various special qualities which makes her extremely inspirational.

Throughout Temple’s ‘emergence from autism’, Temple’s mother focused on Temple’s strengths and affirmed Temple’s differences and way of looking at the world. In letters to Temple, Mrs. Grandin wrote, “Be proud you are different. All bright people who have contributed to life have been different and found the path of life lonely. While the joiners and social butterflies flutter about, Temple, you’ll get real things done (p. 124). “You need symbols. You live them. Like a work of art they are a physical expression of what you feel” (p. 125). “Wanting to grow really loves yourself, loving the best part of yourself” (p.148).

I have heard about Temple Grandin before she is autistic and figured out ways to make the cows less anxious when being slaughtered. It sounds like a bizarre field but to my understanding, she was absolutely brilliant at it because she viewed the world differently. How she views the world is just different and not abnormal, each of us views the world differently. Anyhow, her point is in this video is that autistic spectrum kids view the world differently and they are absolutely essential to our world today. Without these types of thinkers, we would not have engineers, scientists and many different types of people. She believes that we should cultivate these young minds and help them learn how to be the best they can be. I agree with her and

Temple Grandin, a doctor in the field of animal sciences who suffers from Autism, once said, “People are always looking for that single magic bullet that will totally change everything. There is no single magic bullet.” Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a general term for a group of complex disorders of brain development. The Autism Spectrum can be split into many subtypes, including Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, Asperger’s Syndrome, and Pervasive Development Disorder- Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). Starting from an age as young as infancy, symptoms of Autism may be conveyed. Repetitive behavior, any loss of speech or social skills, and attachment to parents are three of the many symptoms expressed by children with Autism (“What

There was actions and symptoms that did portray autism spectrum disorder really well, but there was also times where it seemed like she didn’t have autism but schizophrenia. For the most part autism was accurately portrayed so I do think viewers would get an accurate sense of this disorder and I think this would have a hard impact on viewers due to how intense Temple’s autism is. Viewers can come away from this film and see that all disorders aren’t the same. They have different diagnostic criteria levels and think and communicate differently. Temple shows viewers that you can accomplish things even when others think you can’t. Just because of her autism doesn’t mean she can’t have it all and live like one without this

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a single umbrella disorder, where individuals’ symptoms fall on a continuum in different ways; some display mild symptoms (high-functioning autism) while others exhibit much more severe symptoms (low-functioning autism). In addition, individuals with ASD tend to have difficulties communicating and relating to typically developing (TD) individuals. According to Wing, Gould & Gillberg (2011) the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) identifies problems underlying autism, such as: “impaired social interactions and communication...and restricted behaviour (p. 768)”. There are several organisations relating to ASD, which are dedicated to funding research into the causes, preventions, treatments as well as many other aspects of ASD. ‘Autism Speaks’ is just one of these organisations that have grown tremendously since the group was founded in 2005. This movement presents the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for symptoms relating to emotions, these are known as: “deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviours used for social interaction, ranging, for example, from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication...to a total lack of facial expressions and nonverbal communication” (DSM-5 diagnostic criteria, 2015) in addition to other criteria. Decades of research on recognising and understanding emotions in autistic

For the purpose of this paper, I chose to analyze the communication disorder associated with ASD and the resulting social perceptions found in Stephen Daldry’s 2011 film Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Based off of the 2005 novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, the film tells the story of a nine-year-old boy named Oskar Schell after his father, Thomas Schell, is killed in the World Trade Center during the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001. The film follows Oskar on his emotional and later physical journey as he struggles to processes and accept his father’s sudden death as boy with strong autistic qualities. In this film, we are given the opportunity to better understand the emotions and mindsets commonly associated with autism and can therefore, better learn how to communicate with individuals like Oskar and to recognize their value and worth in society and this world.