Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin (born August 29, 1947) is an Associate Professor at Colorado State University who has autism. She is also a professional designer of humane livestock facilities.

Grandin grew up in a time when little was known about autism. At age two, she was diagnosed with "brain damage"; doctors would not recognize her condition as autism for several years. She was placed in a structured nursery school with what she considers to have been good teachers. She considers herself lucky that she had supporting mentors from primary school onwards. She received a B.A. in Psychology from Franklin Pierce College in 1970, an M.S. in Animal Science from Arizona State University in 1975, and a Ph.D in Animal Science from the University of Illinois in 1989.

Based on her own experiences, she advocates early intervention and supporting teachers who can direct fixations of the autistic child to fruitful directions. She has described her own overt sensitivity to noise and other sensory information, as well as the need to visualize everything. She regularly takes anti-depressants and uses a squeeze-box (hugging machine) she has made herself.

She became well-known after being described by Oliver Sacks in the title narrative of his book An Anthropologist On Mars. Grandin has lectured about autism around the world and on many television programs.

Grandin is considered a philosophical leader of both the animal welfare and autism advocacy movements. Both movements commonly cite her work regarding animal welfare, neurology, and philosophy. Her site has entire sections on how to improve standards in slaughter plants and farms themselves.

One of her most important essays regarding animal welfare is "Animals are not Things" in which she posits that animals are technically property in our society but the law ultimately gives them ethical protections or "rights". She uses a "screwdriver" metaphor by saying a person can legally smash or grind up a screwdriver but a person cannot legally torture an animal.

Books:

• Emergence: Labeled Autistic (with Margaret Scariano , 1986, updated 1991). ISBN 0446671827
• The Learning Style of People with Autism: An Autobiography (1995). In Teaching Children with Autism : Strategies to Enhance Communication and Socializaion by Quill, Kathleen Ann. ISBN 0827362692
• Thinking in pictures : and Other Reports from My Life with Autism (1996). ISBN 0679772898
• Developing Talents : Careers for Individuals with Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism (2004). ISBN 1931282560
• Animals in Translation : Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior (2005). ISBN 0743247698

External Links:

• Temple Grandin's commercial page
• Center for the Study of Autism and some of her articles