Temple Grandin Sharing Work, Personal Journey at Texas Tech
By: Monica Yantosh
Updated: October 30, 2012
Tuesday morning at Texas Tech, Dr. Grandin spoke about her work not only with autism, but also her work within the livestock field.
She has created a piece of equipment, called a center track restrainer system, something she highlights as one of the biggest highlights of her career. "Half the cattle in this country are handled in equipment I designed," said Grandin. "All three of your big plants here in Texas have one."
"Students and adults who get these labels of dyslexia, autism, ADHD, often have uneven, skills, they may be good at something," said Grandin. She believes there's a way to think differently, not only in how to learn, but also in how to teach studenst.
She believes you should find what people are good at, and then help them to excel in that area.
Grandin's success story has gotten her a lot of attention, even sparking an HBO movie about her life with autism.
"Autism is an important part of who I am, and I wouldn't want to change my logical way of thinking, but I'm a professor first, I'm a designer of cattle handling facilities first, and I want to see other kids get into good careers," said Grandin.
She's an advocate of early childhood education, especially in children who maybe aren't able to speak at age 3 or 4, something she experienced personally.
"Teach them turn taking, teach them the alphabet, play nursery rhymes with them, engage them in little games," said Grandin. "Because the worst thing you can do with these little kids is nothing and to just let them sit."
For Grandin, it's been rewarding to see how sharing her story, through books and film, has helped others.
"The work that I've done in autism, because it makes me happy when a mom comes up to me and says 'your book enabled me, for my son go to college' or a wife says to me 'one of your books helped me understand my engineer husband, and it saved our marriage,'" said Grandin. "Okay, that's doing something of value."
Dr. Grandin is also speaking Tuesday night at Texas Tech through the Burkhart Center for Autism Education and Research. That talk will focus more on education for young children and especially those with autism.
She also visited with students at the Burkhart Transition Academy Tuesday morning, and was able to spend time with those students and share common experiences with them and encourage them.
She has created a piece of equipment, called a center track restrainer system, something she highlights as one of the biggest highlights of her career. "Half the cattle in this country are handled in equipment I designed," said Grandin. "All three of your big plants here in Texas have one."
"Students and adults who get these labels of dyslexia, autism, ADHD, often have uneven, skills, they may be good at something," said Grandin. She believes there's a way to think differently, not only in how to learn, but also in how to teach studenst.
She believes you should find what people are good at, and then help them to excel in that area.
Grandin's success story has gotten her a lot of attention, even sparking an HBO movie about her life with autism.
"Autism is an important part of who I am, and I wouldn't want to change my logical way of thinking, but I'm a professor first, I'm a designer of cattle handling facilities first, and I want to see other kids get into good careers," said Grandin.
She's an advocate of early childhood education, especially in children who maybe aren't able to speak at age 3 or 4, something she experienced personally.
"Teach them turn taking, teach them the alphabet, play nursery rhymes with them, engage them in little games," said Grandin. "Because the worst thing you can do with these little kids is nothing and to just let them sit."
For Grandin, it's been rewarding to see how sharing her story, through books and film, has helped others.
"The work that I've done in autism, because it makes me happy when a mom comes up to me and says 'your book enabled me, for my son go to college' or a wife says to me 'one of your books helped me understand my engineer husband, and it saved our marriage,'" said Grandin. "Okay, that's doing something of value."
Dr. Grandin is also speaking Tuesday night at Texas Tech through the Burkhart Center for Autism Education and Research. That talk will focus more on education for young children and especially those with autism.
She also visited with students at the Burkhart Transition Academy Tuesday morning, and was able to spend time with those students and share common experiences with them and encourage them.
