Temple Grandin-Autism at Its Best

The World of Temple Grandin: Autism at its Best “Temple Grandin” the movie is based on a true story about a child born with autism in the 1940’s. Autism is the impairment of social interactions with others, impairment of nonverbal and verbal communication, and the lack of make believe/social play and is found in all races, gender and society’s all over the world (2008, MacKenzie, 19). Having been born in the 1940’s Temple’s parents sought medical attention when noticed that their child was “different” from the others; her parents, rejecting a doctor’s advice to place her in an institution, instead sent their daughter to a series of private schools where her high IQ was nurtured. Temples IQ increasingly grew as she saw things from a different perspective as to what the normal human being would see. As Temple grew older into her college years she fought with her own anxiety problems on a daily basis, this self-battle is what led to the “Squeeze Machine”. The Squeeze Machine was a contraption modeled from an old fashioned way to hold animals in place during branding and other procedures in order to keep them at ease. As Temple would feel nervous or anxious she would place her-self in this contraption to make her-self feel more secure, like she was being hugged. Although Temple was disabled with her diagnoses of Autism, she goes on to prove in her life that she can and will do what she sets her mind to. Temple, after graduating from High School went on to college to pursue her career choice of Animal Management. Doing research on a ranch, Temple study’s the techniques the farmers use in order to raise their live-stock. Temple starts to notice just how inhumane these cattle handlers actually were; Temple worked vigorously, sometimes without stopping, on developing a new technique for the Dip system and also a Slaughterhouse system. Temple could sympathize with the cattle with her own feelings of anxiety. Although as talented as Temple was, she was shunned away by

Cited: MacKenzie, Heather. Reaching and Teaching the Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder : Using Learning Preferences and Strengths. London, , GBR: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2008. Print. Danes, Claire, perf. Temple Grandin. Writ. Temple Grandin, Margaret Scariano, Christopher Monger, and Merrit Johnson. 2010. HBO films. DVD-ROM. Grandin, Temple. Thinking In Pictures. New York: Vintage Books, 1995. N. pag. Print.