The book, Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism, written by Dr. Temple Grandlin, is the story of her life as she struggled to succeed in the world as an individual with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In the book, she focuses on major issues that she was faced with from when she was young all the way till her current age. These issues include her early school experiences, dating, religion, college life, and her career. Dr. Grandlin also puts much emphasis on the medical aspects of Autism and her perspective of how the world works according to an autistic brain. The main characteristic about Temple Grandlin that stuck out to me was her love for animals. She described in the book that she understands them, as her, they think in pictures. …show more content…
Her mother was the driving force behind Grandlin being successful. When Grandlin was young, doctors encouraged her mother to institutionalize her and she refused to do so. She wanted her daughter to grow up and experience all the phases of life just as anyone else would. She refused to keep her daughter locked up in a room and hidden from the world. By having faith in Grandlin and believing that she could accomplish goals in her life, she did everything in her power to give Grandlin a life that was normal. She hired a speech language pathologist and a nanny to provide her with the resources that she needed in order to communicate and go about daily tasks. Looking back on her mother’s decision, it was the best decision she ever made. Grandlin not only finished high school but went on to earn her bachelor’s degree in psychology and a doctoral degree in animal science. As her career continues, she is a professor of animal science at Colorado State University, best selling-author of six books, autism activist and consultant to the livestock industry concerning animal behavior, and the inventor of the squeeze
The book is enjoyable to read because it shows not only the way Georgia lives, but what we can learn from the book as well. My experience with this book is beyond great and showed me how rough Georgia lived her life. She is independent to take care of herself. In the novel Georgia finds hope to do what
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 Exiting Nirvana: A Daughter’s Life with Autism, the main focus was Jessy’s gradual development of self-awareness, but it also appears that Clara is attempting to normalize Jessy. There was an initial impression that Clara wanted Jessy to be “normal” because of societal expectations. During an instance in which Jessy was mumbling unintelligibly, Clara asked Jessy, “You don’t want people to think you’re crazy, do you?” (Park, 2001, p. 60). Clara told Jessy that it is unacceptable in society to mumble or people will view her as crazy. There was not much option for Clara in raising Jessy; it was either normalization or institutionalization as dictated by society. In addition, this reminds me of many of my disability courses, in which it discusses how society views people with disabilities as objects of fear and deviant and that normalization is the only cure. However, as the story progressed, Clara was only teaching Jessy to learn necessary behaviors to prevent society from limiting her potential and disabling her. Clara understood that society would blame people with disabilities for their reduced quality of life, the medical model of disability, instead that the actual fault is due to the organization of society. So, people with disabilities often have to put in more effort in order to prevent society from ostracizing them, even though they are as much capable as
The book is a testimony to the strength and determination of her grandmother, her mother, and herself and their resourcefulness in recreating themselves during
In Chapter four it talks about how people that have autism are concrete thinkers. Before reading this chapter I was unaware of much of our social language is figurative. This is something that a child with autism would struggle with. The author makes a good point when saying “you wouldn’t dream of issuing instructions to you child in a foreign language but English can seem that way” ( Notbohm 66). This put it in to words how hard it can be for a child with autism to grasp the language people use. The author identifies four things that people need to watch out for when speaking with a child with autism. The first thing was to avoid idioms and cliches, so this means instead of saying “something smells fishy” try saying “this does seem right to me”. It gives a better and clearer
Autism is a developmental disorder, which is characterized by a dyad of difficulties in a) communication and social interaction and b) restricted interests and imagination (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Individuals on the Autism Spectrum might find it challenging to understand what other people think or what the reasons for their behaviours are, as their ‘theory of mind’ may not be well developed (Schuwerk, Vuori & Sodian, 2015). It is possible that this is why they might behave in socially inappropriate ways, being unable to differentiate between different contexts, while they might also find it difficult to make friends. Moreover, it is likely that they are fond of routines, repetition and structure (Carnahan, Musti-Rao, & Bailey, 2009), as they might be nervous with unknown, new situations. In addition, some of them might not do eye contact with other people, whereas some others might not endure to be touched and might have a difficulty developing speech (Jordan, 2005). Individuals on the Autism Spectrum might sometimes be prohibited to initiate conversations and might struggle with finding different ways to play and behave, due to the possible deficit of imagination, which in some cases might result in them having a narrow sphere of interests. Nevertheless, it should be noted that this group of people is rather heterogeneous, as characteristics of autism may differ from one individual to another (Gwynette, 2013). Another point is that people with Autism
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.
Gristwood weaves the stories of these women's lives in such a way that you get a real sense of the love and dedication that drove these women to do whatever they had to do to uphold their family name and make sure that their children carried on their legacy.
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
Originally, I was drawn to speech pathology after my sister’s diagnosis of Autism at the age of three. Watching Diane struggle with language development and acquisition while other children seemed to grasp these skills naturally is what initially sparked my interest in helping families like my own. At the start of my junior year, I set out to obtain experiences working with different populations. Toward the latter half of junior year, I became involved as a clerical volunteer at the Sacramento Scottish Rite Childhood Language Center. By senior year, I was balancing a full course load alongside three volunteer experiences. In addition to Scottish Rite Childhood Language Center, I divided my time between tutoring at a neighboring elementary school in the Twin Rivers School District and serving as an intern at the Autism Center for Excellence (ACE). During my undergraduate experience, I welcomed the opportunity to work with students that struggled with literacy, language, and pragmatic skills. After graduation, it was my goal to obtain additional experience in the field as a speech-language pathology assistant.
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.
Temple Grandin was able to do amazing things for agriculture even though she struggled with severe autism. She also changed many things in the way animals were handled and treated. Temple was able to set standards higher not only for those who had autism to lead better lives, but also for animals to getter the treatment and care they deserve.
Autism spectrum disorder has become the most common neurological and developmental disorder diagnosed in children today. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012) estimate that 1 out of every 88 American children have been properly diagnosed. There is no known cure for autism, and the inconsistencies of the symptoms of autism in each case make it difficult to target a particular set of effective treatments. However some behavior management therapies, specifically physical therapy, may help to significantly control the unwanted symptoms in young children with autism spectrum disorder.
Autism is on the rise. Many researchers feel the reasons isn’t because there are more kids being afflicted with it, but the increased public awareness has allowed this disorder to be more easily recognized and diagnosed at a earlier age.
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