Temple Grandin: A Positive Role Model

I bet you’ve seen at least one before. You know, those articles on the news about someone with autism, doing something amazing that any typical person would never envision them doing. Getting elected homecoming king, being on a cheerleading team, or carrying out an act of kindness that even non-autistic people wouldn’t ever consider are just some of the things that I’ve seen. Though these are spectacular self-esteem lifters for these individuals, warm and fuzzy stories for the public and excellent publicity for wherever they occur, many often forget that autism is a spectrum condition, and functioning levels vary, from wheelchair bound individuals to those in society whose names everyone recognizes.

Autism, it is considered a death sentence when one is diagnosed with it. However, one

“Work to view my autism as a different ability rather than a disability. Look past what you may see as limitations and see the gifts autism has given me…Be my advocate, be my friend, and we’ll see just how far we can go” –Ellen Botbohm, author of Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew.

Grandin points out the important of autism, a different way of thinking. She thinks that people should get away from verbal and pay more attention on details. She demonstrates that a normal brain tends to ignore details. Grandin also observes that people are getting too abstract, and forget about hands-on things that would help a lot in cognitive thinking. She claims that kids during her time had a great opportunity to express their creativity in a variety of ways.

In the video “Inclusion, belonging, and the disability revolution” (TEDTalks, 2014), speaker Jennie Fenton opens with describing situations where people with disabilities are segregated and excluded from their communities, sent to live together away from society, or even treated as lesser humans. She then proceeds to introduce her family, including her six-year-old daughter that was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Jennie admits to previously having negative or frightened thoughts about having a child with a disability, but with her “seven realizations,” she learned that her daughter was merely on a different path than others, but that no one should ever feel broken or not a whole person (TEDTalks, 2014). After she explains that there are roughly one billion people with a disability throughout the world, Jennie states that she believes in possibility over disability. If a person’s

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

There are a lot of people who live with autism, and by the time they are adults, are able to take care of themselves. “My autism is the reason I’m in college and successful. It’s the reason I’m in math and science. It’s the reason I care,” (Jacob Barnett). Jacob is a math and physics prodigy, and he lives with autism. All over the internet there are stories about people with autism living normal, or even extraordinary lives. People who work with them learn to accept their quirks and eventually realize that they can function just as well as anyone else. This is one example of someone who learned how to overcome the issues that autism presents, and go on to be something really special.

The moment she got trampled under the stomps and shoves of others, one could identify what she’d been feeling like previously - a witness to her own inconvenience. This incident not only exemplifies but also symbolizes the burden she feels having been born handicapped, unable to provide assistance or gain to the world. These feelings Adahs has for her life are later rebutted by her longstanding dreams of attending medical school and improving science. By achieving her academic potential, she finally recognized herself as an important asset to the world- no longer being seen as handicapped, physically or mentally.

An intellectual disability, like the one had by Roland Johnson and about one percent to three percent of people, is defined as “a disability that is present at birth or occurs in the developmental period (before the age of 18) and is characterized by significant sub-average intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with related limitations in 2 or more areas of adaptive functioning” (Daul). Roland Johnson, though his life was hard, did not let his “limitations” limit him.

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.

According to Barnes “Autism is found throughout the world in families of all racial, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds.”(Barnes 2015). Grandin also explains her experiences living with autism in her novel Thinking in Pictures. Grandin acquired her the ability to create and imagine through her visual thinking. In contrast, one barrier that hindered her was her inability to comprehend or associate social cues and emotion to a picture. With this in mind, Grandin using her natural talents to learn enabled her to push through what most people consider an accessibility issue.

Temple Grandin provides the information in a very clear and coherent manner, keeping a firm order and not drifting from her specific topic points. The topic of the book is very originally and she makes it even more creative by providing real life situations that she has experienced, not only with her autism, but with her career as well. Grandin avoids the use of colloquial words, contractions, and abbreviations. She uses passive voice when referring to scientific information and uses complex sentences. Grandin makes her points clear with great amounts of confidence

Temple was born in Boston Massachusetts. When Temple was born her mom knew she was different because she didn’t enjoy or do most things that other babies did. As she grew older everyday things like the bell ringing at school to someone wearing perfume made her cringe with pain, when she was 3 she was diagnosed with autism. Temple started caring for wildlife

Another reason why I think this movie is such a great, inspirational movie is because of how a woman with autism can accomplish something so inspiring that shows people with autism shouldn’t be viewed as someone who can’t do much or someone who doesn’t have the skills and knowledge to do what normal people can. Temple Grandin has probably made a big difference in what people think of ones who have autism and I think that is great. Just because a person has autism doesn’t necessarily mean that people don’t have autism should view them as someone lower than themselves. People with autism are only stronger-willed and even though they may have difficulty with life, Temple Grandin shows that it doesn’t matter if you have autism or not because you can achieve your goals, you just need that determination in your life. From this movie, I have learned that no matter how small other people may think of you, you have the

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