Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin (born 1947) is an Assistant Professor in Colorado State University who has autism. She is also a professional designer of livestock facilities.

Grandin was diagnosed with autism at the age of two. She was placed in a structured nursery school with, what she consideres, good teachers. She considers herself lucky that she had supporting mentors from the primary school onwards.

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 and the need to visualize everything. She regularly takes anti-depressants and uses a squeeze-box (hugging machine) she has made herself.

Grandin has lectured about autism around the world and in many television programs.

Books:

• Emergence Labeled Autistic (with Margaret Scariano, 1986, updated 1991)
• The Learning Style of People with Autism: An Autobiography
• Thinking in pictures (1996)

External Links:

• Temple Grandin’s commercial page: http://www.grandin.com/
• Center for the Study of Autism and some of her articles at http://www.autism.org/