Temple Grandin, Ph.D.
Temple Grandin, Ph.D., is one of the most accomplished and well-known adults with autism in the world. She has been featured on major television programs, such as ABC's Primetime Live, the Today Show, Larry King Live, 48 Hours, and 20/20; written up in national publications, such as Time magazine, People magazine, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, and the New York Times; and interviews with Dr. Grandin have been broadcast on National Public Radio. Among numerous other recognitions by media, Bravo Cable did a half-hour show on her life, and she was one of the "challenged" people featured in the best-selling book, Anthropologist from Mars.
Grandin didn't talk until she was three and a half years old, communicating her frustration instead by screaming, peeping, and humming. In 1950, she was labeled "autistic," and her parents were told she should be institutionalized. She tells her story in her book Emergence: Labeled Autistic, which stunned the world when it was published in 1986 because most professionals and parents assumed that those with autism had no inner life and were permanently cut off from the possibility of productivity or achievement.
Even though she was considered "weird" in her young school years, she eventually found a mentor, who recognized her interests and abilities, which she later expanded into becoming a successful livestock handling equipment designer, one of very few in the world. She has designed facilities internationally, including the facilities in which half the cattle are handled in the United States, consulting for firms such as Burger King, McDonald's, Swift, and others. She is currently a professor of animal science at Colorado State University and speaks around the world on cattle handling. She is author of Livestock Handling and Transport and Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals, as well as more than 300 articles in both scientific journals and livestock periodicals on animal handling, welfare, and facility design.
Grandin writes and speaks on the subject of autism to help fight the wide misconceptions about "autistic" people and spread the message that the characteristics of autism can be modified and controlled. Her other books include: Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships (with coauthors Sean Barron and Veronica Zysk), which won the prestigious Foreword Book of the Year Award for 2006; Thinking in Pictures and Other Reports from My Life with Autism; and Animals in Translation. |
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