The thing about being autistic is that you gradually get less and less autistic, because you keep learning, you keep learning how to behave. It's like being in a play; I'm always in a play. Temple Grandin More Quotes by Temple Grandin More Quotes From Temple Grandin Dogs serve people, but people serve cats. Temple Grandin cat dog people To understand animal thinking you've got to get away from a language. Temple Grandin language animal thinking I've got my one area I work in and I want to educate people about autism and I also want to improve, you know, animal handling and transport and make a real change out in the field on the ground. Temple Grandin real animal people I think the mild Aspergers have always been there. You see, Asperger's diagnosis did not become common in the U.S. until the early '90s. And an Aspergers has more or less normal speech development and they've always been here, that hasn't changed. I can think back to when I was in high school, this is 40 years ago, I could name kids in my high school class and college class that, today, would be diagnosed as Aspergers. Temple Grandin college kids school All children in the '50s were taught manners, they were taught to say please and thank you, they were taught not to be rude. And I'm seeing some problems today where somebody's losing a job because they made fun of a fat lady that couldn't fit in the elevator. I mean that was the sort of thing that, when I was eight years old, my mother made it very clear to me that that was not okay to say that kind of stuff. Temple Grandin mother jobs children I look at the successful people that have, you know, high functioning autism and Asperger's, they're ones where maybe the parents were in the computer industry and they just taught the kids programming at, you know, age eight and nine and they just went on into the industry with their parents. Temple Grandin eight successful kids Some autistic people have savant skills. All autistic people do not have savant skills. Autism is a very variable disorder varying all the way from Einstein, emollient scientist, just a little bit of the trait, many scientist and engineers, down to somebody that's going to remain nonverbal. Temple Grandin autism skills people I feel very strongly, we've got to give animals a good life. I've worked really hard improving slaughter plants and animal handling and transport. And people have said to me, why don't you work on improving conditions on pig farms? And basically, to be effective on making real change out there on the ground, you can only work on so many things. You know, you get too distributed, you're not effective. Temple Grandin good-life real animal I played around with vegetarianism back in the '70s. One thing, my physiology just got to have animal protein. I get hypoglycemic, I get all light-headed unless I eat animal protein. Temple Grandin light vegetarianism animal When I was diagnosed, mothers were blamed for causing autism. There was no autism support. They'd put autistic kids in institutions. I had severe autism. But my mom wouldn't accept that. I was put in speech therapy. My mother was always pushing me to do stuff. Temple Grandin mom mother kids I'm a believer in biochemistry. But I tell people to try only one thing at a time to see if it works. And if you do give a powerful drug to a kid, it better have a big wow factor. Temple Grandin powerful giving kids I've been on antidepressants for years, and it worked to stop my anxiety and didn't limit creativity. Some of the best work I've done, in fact, is after I started taking the antidepressants. Temple Grandin anxiety creativity years I don't define myself as autistic first. I don't want to be a professional autistic. I think it's important to have a real job. Temple Grandin real jobs thinking I feel very strongly that we need to give beef cattle a really good life. When they go to slaughter, it needs to be painless. Temple Grandin beef good-life giving My mind works like Google for images. You put in a key word; it brings up pictures. See language for me narrates the pictures in my mind. Temple Grandin google keys mind Animals do have emotion. But fear tends to be one of the most primal emotions. Temple Grandin primal emotion animal If you have a 2-year-old who is non-verbal, don't wait until you get a diagnosis at 4. The child needs one-on-one teaching with an effective teacher now. This can be a grandmother or a teacher or someone from the community. Grandmothers are especially great. There are a lot of grannies around. Go to your church for help. Temple Grandin teaching teacher children There's no black and white dividing line between a mild Aspergers, which is the mild autism, and computer engineer, for example. Temple Grandin autism black-and-white lines The most important thing in a shelter is that volunteers, especially with dogs, come in everyday, take that pet out for an hour of quality time. Temple Grandin volunteer pet dog The reason why feral kitties are hard to tame is because they have missed socialization the period - you need to be touching and petting those kittens when they are real young. Temple Grandin touching real reason-why
