Temple Grandin: Inspiring greatness in autistic children

I have often heard Temple at our conferences plead to parents and teachers to focus on fostering the interests of the child with autism.  Throughout her life, Temple’s mentors, including her science teacher, instilled confidence in her to pursue a higher level of education in an area she was passionate about and could relate to.  “You have to get this book on developing talents,” she said repeatedly as she fielded questions after her presentation.  I saw her intense passion as she pointed out what makes the difference for a child with autism to maintain an interest in education and pursue a job applicable to their abilities and interest. 

Temple has stated, “Individuals on the spectrum often have obsessions about particular subjects that, if used properly, could propel them into a career.”  Her autistic mind allows her to relate incredibly well to cattle and to think like an engineer when it comes to creating cattle handling systems.  Temple literally thinks in pictures and learns best by visual application when it comes to studying a subject.  Temple stresses to parents and teachers that it is critical to understand how a person with autism learns best in order to help them progress with a school’s curriculum.  Putting structured expectations in place for home and school is an important part in the key to success.  Temple states, “to be successful on the job, everyone – autistic and non-autistic alike – needs a plan and a daily structure.  As important, is at least an hours worth of down time within that structure to do “your own thing.” 

Because Temple was informed during her early school years that there are degrees in educational fields that would allow her to work directly with cattle, she was able to combine her passion and autistic mind into a rewarding career.  She went on to get her Bachelors, Masters, and PhD and is currently a professor of animal sciences for Colorado State University.