Temple Grandin’s Advice for Parents of Children with Autism

User rollinarmadillo asked Dr. Grandin a question related to the Emmy award-winning HBO documentary that depicted a “mental mapping” of the way that animals move. She claims that the documentary accurately portrays the exact way that she sees the world, citing a specific scene that shows “all the shoes appearing in rapid succession,” as a person walked. She states that “the images that appear around animal movement are from my actual drawings and diagrams that appear in my early publications.”

She also recalls a scene in which she got down on her hands and knees in a chute to see what cattle were seeing as they were being moved. A self-described visual learner, Grandin utilized her gifts of perceiving the world differently than an ordinary person to become the foremost authority on animal welfare and US cattle facilities. Her work has extended beyond animals to improve the lives of autistic individuals as well, including an invention called the “hug box” which reduces anxiety and tension by providing deep pressure stimulation.