Meeting Temple Grandin

 

What a difference a day makes.

Friday was chilly, but dry. This morning was a maelstrom of wild, freezing wind and whirling flakes of snow. I’m glad Apache chose to sleep in the barn last night, so I didn’t have to brave this storm to let her into the barn, early this morning.

Brrr! Winter is finally here.

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(Note: This is a long post. Grab some refreshments first)

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Friday was a thrill of a lifetime for me.

I met Temple Grandin.

In case y’all didn’t know. Dr. Temple Grandin is well know for designing Curved Chute Livestock Handling facilities and Center Track Restrainer Systems, that are now used worldwide, to reduce stress on livestock during handling.

She has also developed an objective scoring system for assessing handling of cattle and pigs at meat plants. This scoring system is being used by many large corporations to improve animal welfare.

Other areas of research are: cattle temperament, environmental enrichment for pigs, reducing dark cutters and bruises, bull fertility, training procedures, and effective stunning methods for cattle and pigs at meat plants.

She is a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. And she obtained her B.A. at Frankin Pierce College and her M.S. in Animal Science at Arizona State University. Dr. Grandin also received her Ph.D in Animal Science from the University of Illinois in 1989.

Today she teaches courses on livestock behavior and facility design at Colorado State University and consults with the livestock industry on facility design, livestock handling, and animal welfare.

She has appeared on television shows such as 20/20, 48 Hours, CNN Larry King Live, PrimeTime Live, the Today Show, and many shows in other countries. She has been featured in People Magazine, the New York Times, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, Time Magazine, the New York Times book review, and Discover magazine.

And in 2010, Time Magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people!

Interviews with Dr. Grandin have been broadcast on National Public Radio and she has also authored over 400 articles in both scientific journals and livestock periodicals on animal handling, welfare, and facility design.

She is the author of "Thinking in Pictures", "Livestock Handling and Transport," "Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals," and "Humane Livestock Handling." Her books "Animals in Translation" and "Animals Make Us Human" were both on the New York Times best seller list. "Animals Make Us Human" was also on the Canadian best seller list.

She has also written many books on the subject of Autism/Aspergers, which you can see by clicking: Temple Grandin's Books

Have you all seen her movie yet? 

Her life story has also been made into an HBO movie titled "Temple Grandin." The movie shows her life as a teenager, how she lived with Autism, and how she started her career.

(Temple Grandin with Claire Danes who played Temple in the movie)

This movie touched my heart so much. As a Mother of a child diagnosed with Aspergers on the Autism Spectrum, as well as a person who fits many of the symptoms of Aspergers (mostly with understanding social situations) but was never diagnosed, this movie spoke to me on so many levels, and gave me hope and inspiration.

I couldn’t wait to meet this amazing lady, Temple Grandin.

My friend Suzanne gathered a bunch of us ladies together that have special needs kids (4 with Autism/Aspergers and 1 with Downs Syndrome) so we could get the Group Rate to attend an Autism/Aspergers Conference at the Sandia Resort and Casino in Albuquerque.

One of my dearest, long time friends joined us, too. I first met Julie over 15 years ago when I went to work for her family as a Nanny and cared for her 3 sons, one of which who has Downs Syndrome. I’m grateful we’ve kept in touch over the years and it was wonderful spending a day with her during the conference.

 

The Autism/Aspergers Conference began with Dr. Jed Baker, who is the director of the Social Skills Training Project, a private organization serving individuals with autism and social communication problems. He also directs social skills training for Millburn Public Schools in New Jersey. He is on the professional advisory board of Autism Today, ASPEN, ANSWER, YAI, the Kelberman Center and several other autism organizations. In addition, he writes, lectures, and provides training internationally on the topic of social skills training and managing challenging behaviors. He is an award winning author of five books: Click Link for Book Site. His work has also been featured on ABC World News, Nightline, the CBS Early Show, and the Discovery Health Channel.

While Jed Baker was full of helpful and useful information, advice and ideas, and was very entertaining and humorous, much of what he spoke about didn’t pertain to my own family. My friend Julie and I agreed that he tended to be quite verbose and focused too much on one subject for a very long time, such as peer groups, “lunch bunch”, and persuading a child to give up something or stop what they were doing without having out of control melt downs. This isn’t something we have a problem with in our home, and because we homeschool we don’t have issues with bullying where we need the support of peers or a “lunch bunch” to make life more bearable for a child dealing with being ‘different’.

But the majority of Conference-goers, a couple hundred people, were professionals, teachers, psychologists, therapists, counselors, etc, so I got the feeling that much of what was being discussed was for their benefit. As parent, most of what Jed Baker had to say, quite honestly, just seemed like common sense.

For the professional who works with large groups of kids that are basically strangers, I could see where what he had to say could be useful. But still, considering that my day began at 5am, I showed up for registration at 7am, the conference began at 8:15am, and Jed Baker spoke from 8:30 until 2:30pm (with lunch and a scattering of brief breaks thrown in)…….it was a long, tedious day.

(The continental breakfast was good, though)

But it wasn’t until lunchtime that my spirits were raised when we all walked out to find some lunch (casino food rocks!) that we saw Temple Grandin at the book table signing books and realized excitedly that there was hardly anyone around. This was my opportunity to meet Temple Grandin in person (Eeeeee!!!)

First thing I did was mosey on over and purchase the two books I had my eye on……

……and then I walked over and asked Temple Grandin to sign them, which she graciously did. (Eeeee!)

 

 

I spoke with her for a few minutes. She asked me how I was related to someone with Autism and I briefly told her about my daughter. I never asked her any questions on how to work with my daughter, but she went right into asking me if I was having any issues with teaching my daughter to read or learn Math. She gave me some very useful advice for teaching Math concepts after I told her about my daughter’s interest in chickens. Temple was very interested in our chickens and seemed impressed that I allowed Jenna full responsibility in caring for and raising our flock of chickens. We got to talking about the more humorous aspects of chickens and she commiserated on our previous plight with our bad-boy rooster, Sid Vicious. I found myself very at ease chatting with her, probably because we both have a love for animals and the conversation just flowed naturally. Temple also seems to be a very unpretentious, humble person, and I was even more impressed with her after our conversation.

And then…….we had our picture taken together! (Eeeeee!)

Temple had gently taken my hand in this photo, and I felt like I wanted to give her a hug, but I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable, so I abstained……until later(!!)

So, we all left to go find some food (a yummy large Green Chile Hamburger and tasty Onion Rings for me….and Free soda…all for only $4.00! Gotta love those casinos!) and then headed back to finish up the Dr. Jed Baker portion of the Conference.

To introduce Temple Grandin, a short video introduction with scenes from the making of her movie played. When Temple walked up to the stage, you could just feel the energy in the room. Everyone gave her a standing ovation, but ironically, Temple didn’t even seem to notice and never even said Thank you. But I don’t think any of us minded. It was just a simple way to show respect and to honor such a very special, outspoken woman and all that she has accomplished, because even though she is different….she is in no way, less. Temple Grandin is a hero on so many levels.

  

I won’t go into the “meat” of her speech, but I would love to share some of my favorite “Temple-isms”, or quotes that made me smile, laugh or just totally relate to:

~“Algebra is not a pre-requisite for Geometry - Check your Facts People! Geometry came first!”

~”Don’t De-Geek the Geek”

~”Bring Tech Skills Back into Schools! We are losing our skilled laborers in favor of computer skills. In the near future we will be lacking carpenters, electricians, plumbers, auto mechanics….”

~”Tell Video Game Playing Teens that Oil Rigs have joy sticks, too”

~”Half of all Silicone Valley have Aspergers: Steve Jobs, Bill Gates…….”

~”It’s ok for Geeks to Cry, they Rule the World”

~”Those of us with Autism/Aspergers are still emotionally a child. Just check out today’s Wall Street Journal (11/4/11) and read about the computer geeks who are fascinated with My Little Pony!! Seriously!”

~”Hanging out with Teenagers is not on my Lifeskills List” (after talking about how rude most teenagers tend to be: grabbing at her, being too pushy, thoughtless comments, and trying to shake her hand like a dead fish.)

~”Autistic/Aspergers People Keep the World Going”

~”Imagine how many drugs Tesla or Albert Einstein would be on if they were alive today!” (after discussing how we overmedicate children and adults for Autism)

~”I still remember having to go to church on Easter and my Mother making me wear that stupid hat with the fake fruit on it” (after saying how important it is to include Autistic children in all family activities.)

~”Visual Thinkers are often prone to panic attacks and fear”

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Temple is a Visual Thinker. As am I. I have always had difficulty understanding the meaning behind what I read or people tell to me. What I often see is different from what the original intention was. I process information using pictures in my brain. And I tend to over think most everything I come up against. Trying to decipher things sometimes gets me into trouble and probably makes people think I’m a little strange or a trouble maker.

“Do they mean this, or that, or something else?”

The Internet Social Scene is the most challenging for Visual Thinkers. What I read online, especially in social situations can be very confusing to understand or figure out. Oftentimes what one person writes is not really what they mean. And comments are usually written in short, brief sentences(or what I have called “sharp” in the past, because brief, cheeky comments look 'sharp' around the edges to me. This word 'sharp' once even ended up offending a fellow blogger when I asked her about the comments she kept leaving me. Her comments were brief and looked to have an 'edge' to them. She dumped me as a friend just because I used that word (she had no interest in knowing why), but she's still blogging and I have since learned that the comments she leaves on other's blogs are just her personal style and way of being funny. But it sure confused me and made me wonder if there was more meaning behind her words ). So, now I'm often afraid to ask people what they mean when they leave a comment or write a blog post, for fear of offending. I also get worried that my own comments will confuse, annoy or offend as well.

These types of social situations can lead to a lot of anxiety and worrying for a Visual Thinker.

Having Autism or Asperger symptoms can be like working your way through a complicated puzzle every day.

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When Temple’s speech was over, I was left wanting more. In fact, I can attest to the fact that 1 1/2 hours is far too short to allow this outspoken, engaging, knowledgeable woman to speak. I really don’t know why the planners gave Temple such a short section at the end. In fact I felt as if she wanted to share more about herself, which I was wanting more of, too. And she seemed rushed, having to follow the pre-written syllabus and outline, probably to keep the speakers on track while covering everything the attending professionals required, so they could receive their Continuing Education Credits and Certificate.

(Which even us parents were given as well)

At the end, Temple Grandin did have a 30 minute Question/Answer Session. And I wanted to ask a few more questions, but got too nervous to raise my hand.

Instead, afterwards, I made my way to the Book Sales area where Temple was waiting to sign more books, and I spoke with her at that time.

I overheard other people asking her for advice on Autism issues affecting their students or their own children, but I was really more interested in Temple Grandin the Person, and figured much of the advice I might seek will be within her books or video. So instead I asked her:

1)What future projects will you be working on? And/Or what other issues or problems are you wanting to solve or educate others on?

She shared with me that her focus is mostly on education and she doesn’t have any plans for livestock related architectural design. She was most excited about a future speaking engagement for a Major Company (“one we have all heard of” in her own words…as she leaned in close to me to whisper in my ear). This company supposedly has a very large number of Asperger affected employees working for them. (After thinking about it, my guesses were Intel, which has a large factory here in New Mexico, Dell, Gateway, perhaps even Microsoft, or Apple!) I told her how excited I was for her and I hope this venture proves successful.

2)Are you still riding horses?

Alas, Temple Grandin is not riding anymore due to balance problems, and mostly because she is afraid of getting injured and not being able to continue her passion for educating everyone on Animal Humane issues and Autism/Aspergers. She did tell me that the horse she posed with, in the photo on my sidebar, was used to barrel race, and one day he slammed into a barrel, flipped over and was seriously injured. And sadly, is now too emotionally damaged to ever do barrel racing again.

3)What do you like to do in your spare time?

Temple seemed pleased that I asked her such an unusual question (I get the impression most people ask her questions about Autism, livestock issues, and her education). And she laughed and told me she loves to watch movies. And then she recommended two movies she had watched recently:

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

(Oooh! *shiver* Watching the trailer gave me goosebumps!)

Temple also advises to be sure to continue watching all the way through the credits. She told me this several times, but said she does not do ‘Spoilers’. She just said, “Don’t miss the part after the credits!”

Ok Temple. I certainly won’t. Will you?

Temple also recommended:

Cowboys and Aliens

With the same Director as the movie IronMan (another awesome movie!), this is another Sci-Fi flick. And like Temple said, “It has aliens, cowboys and horses…..what’s not to like?”

So, these two movies are now on my Must-See List.

I also joked with her that I think I have a good idea where her take of the Conference money goes: Temple’s vast, unique and beautifully detailed, Western-style shirts. She got a laugh at that.

At the end of our fun chat, I was feeling so comfortable around Temple that I asked her if she would be comfortable with a hug, and she smiled and said “Of Course” and leaned in for a genuine close hug…not one of those A-Frame Stranger Hugs. I then thanked her and told her how wonderful it was for me to finally meet her and get to know her better.

I think I was on Cloud 9 for the rest of the day.

If you ever get the opportunity to hear Temple Grandin speak, don’t pass it up. And even better, don’t miss out on sharing a conversation with this fascinating, kind, funny, and special lady.