Autism Conference Part 3 - Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin is an inspiration, she's so passionate about her work and full of information. It was truly an honor to meet her and hear her speak. She also autographed my book.

The very first thing she said is to do something, the worst thing you can do is to do nothing. get them into therapy and stressed the importance of early intervention. Here is where I truly can not get over how incredibly amazing of a mother Temple had. When she was diagnosed with Autism, the doctor recommended her be institutionalized, as it was the typical treatment. But not her mom, she hired a nanny and a speech therapist. Temple didn't talk until she was 4 years old. The nanny spent time playing with her and teaching her turn taking and Temple again stressed the importance of that activity.

Pushing our children to do things, to work harder, and do their work is important, but pushing too hard and causing sensory overload will result in no progress. This made me feel vindicated in my decision to cease the therapy that was causing Mr N to meltdown and subsequently shut down. The entire conference gave me many moments of confidence and reassurance.

Temple explained why many children cover or block their ears, sense they have intense senses many times sounds hurt their ears and inflicts much pain. It is better to have them initiate the sounds. Beth (the OT who spoke prior to Temple) likened it to brushing hair, it doesn't hurt when you brush your own hair because you know what is too much.

Slowing down and stressing the hard consonants is how Temple's speech therapist taught her to speak and enunciate. I am eager to do this with Mr N, this will be extremely beneficial in teaching him to talk correctly.

Temple was absolutely hilarious, the drawings that were shown in her movie "Temple Grandin" were included in her presentation, every time she showed them she would get giddy and excited. She is still so incredibly proud of her work, so passionate about her work.

Temple is a visual learner, she sees everything in pictures. She says her mind is like google images, only very specific. She discovered in her 40s that people thought in generalized pictures. For example, when she thinks about steeples, she has categories of steeples, the first category is the one from her hometown, next are the ones in the town she lives now, then the final category is famous steeples.

She discussed the importance of teaching social skills in the community, how to shake hands, make eye contact, order food, good table manners. Everyone needs these skills, being on the spectrum is not an excuse. Things that should not be tolerated are bad manners, being rude, swearing, sloppy dress and poor personal hygiene. She said it is okay to be eccentric, but being dirty or rude is not. There is no reason to try to de-geek the geek. Again, she is funny.

Temple spent the summer at her aunt's house starting when she was 12 or 13 which is where she discovered her love for animals and prompted her career path. Her mom got her jobs, volunteered her, or got her internships at various places every summer even through college so that she would have real life experience. She talked about what a shame it is that we have kids graduating from college who have never worked.

Another thing she brought up was the importance of children learning to play with each other where the rules and duties are negotiated by the children. Building a sand castle or playing with lincoln logs and working together to build things. She discouraged letting children just play video games all the time (actually she criticized it pretty harshly). She also made no apologies for her lack of political correctness and called it "BS".

Encouraging children at a young age to pursue the things they love will help them. Let them start working in middle school, even if it's volunteer work. She also gave specific job suggestions for people with autism based on how they think. Jobs for visual thinkers, jobs for verbal thinkers, jobs for math and music thinkers, etc.

Every night before bed Temple does 100 crunches, it helps her sleep better. If she doesn't do them it messes her up for a long time. She expressed the importance of getting daily exercise. Getting exercise makes it easier to sleep, getting sleep helps you function. She also suggesting cutting out 10 tons of sugar from your child's diet. She feels better if she gets animal protein for breakfast, sausage, egg and an apple is her typical breakfast.

I purchased two of Temple's books and plan to purchase another one when I'm finished with these. I am also hoping to watch her movie again in the very near future, even though I will cry.

Temple is absolutely one of the most amazing speakers I've ever seen in my life. She commands the audience attention, I don't think one person blinked the entire time she spoke. I really had to laugh when she talked about video gamers (it's not a social activity), she said there are 100 applicants for every 1 job in the video gaming industry. She encouraged getting a major in computer science and engineering (if those are suitable careers) and that there are 2 jobs for every 1 applicant in those fields. I must admit that I see plenty of job postings for engineers, so she must be on to something.

I will probably add things to my usual blogs as I recall them. If you are on the spectrum, have a child on the spectrum, or work with a child on the spectrum, I highly recommend you take the opportunity to see Temple speak if you ever get the chance. She is incredible.