A fantastic day with Temple Grandin!

Temple Grandin

I wish I could impart what I came away with from hearing Temple Grandin speak yesterday.  Because her thoughts add to things I have already learned and feel deeply it is hard to put the full measure of that into my own words.  Much of what she said wasn't new to me but hearing it from her meant something different.  Her first hand knowledge of autism and her desire to delve into details and understand things from their very root is one thing that makes her so interesting to listen to.  She emphasized some great things that I really loved:

The idea that kids are really missing out on the values and manners once taught in her childhood (and mine) and how that creates a disservice to them as an adult.  Among some of those listed were the very basics such as turn taking, being on time and saying please and thank you.

Sometimes you have to do things you don't like to do and it's important to learn this is a reality in life.

Learning to think bottom up rather than top down all the time.

She responded to a question asking her what helped make her a successful adult.  She said no one thing or event miraculously made her successful but a combination of many things.  She did list many things but part of that equation was good teachers because they can make a significant difference!

Seeing the actual pictures from various brain scans that have been done on her was quite fascinating.  She showed the makeup of her brain compared to a typical developed brain.  There were significant differences!

I loved hearing her say she loves the way she thinks and would never want to give that up.  It's such a gift really.

She would start to talk about something and then say something like "see I'm starting to put things into categories again because that is what helps me to break the information down".

I was interested by her personal Rule System where she has 4 specific categories she can place and compartmentalize all of life's rules.  That helps her understand their importance or place easier.

Kids need the same kind of behavior expectations at home as at school and how that is becoming less and less common and can really create problems.

She would throw in some slides of her inventions and say she simply just likes to share and talk about them.  She seemed to enjoy clarifying what was very accurate in the movie about her.

I love that she is who she is and loves to be a problem solver.  Although she has poor working memory recall, she can compensate by turning on a visual walk through of something.

It was fun to learn that she earned her PhD from University of Illinois in Champaign Urbana just 9 years before Nick started his graduate work there.  I don't know why I never picked up on that one before.  She related a story about a guy who worked at a paint store there and how she knew he had Asperger's  and the things he did to make the store successful.

She did quite a long question and answer period.  I was a little sad that people kept asking questions about specific children scenarios looking for solutions or ideas to help them.  She would give opinions but obviously ask lots of questions.  Although she has plenty of personal experience and does plenty of reading and research about this, I felt like people were thinking she must have the answer to everything.  She is a Dr of animal science.  Sure she has personal experience but every child/adult is different and I think people were losing sight of this.  But I found the process of listening to this very fun.  My favorite was when she would say  "you need to stop asking me questions that aren't specific enough".  She'd have to start doing some troubleshooting by asking more questions  to delve in and get to the root. 

Even though this is quite a list, it is in no way a comprehensive list of what she spoke of but just some of the things that I found of interest.  I was really interested to know what Nick thought of the conference.  About half way through the said something like "can we just take her home with us for a day...I'd love to just have a lengthy conversation with her".  He could relate to so much of what she said.  It was good for all of us to hear.  The entire experience was great. She made us laugh and she even got a little silly herself trying to tell us something that was so funny to her.  I love who she is!   I even met a parent of a child on the spectrum who is also a school speech therapist and gained some new insights into some resources within the state that I didn't know existed.  

OH and one last thing.  Of course they had a huge area, bigger than the conference room full of vendors of various types.  Many were support groups, organizations, education and therapy groups and some were those selling their own goods.  One in particular that I loved was the young adult who is working to make a living with is artwork.  He has cards, framed artwork, mugs etc.  So just giving a little recognition to Anthony Stornant Collar who runs Art of Autism.  His artwork is fun and very much of it is VERY Michigan!