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The Inspirational Temple Grandin Speaks at Southern Door

It was January 2010 when I last spoke with Temple Grandin, just weeks before the HBO film Temple Grandin starring Claire Danes was about to be released.

“I gave Claire Danes the oldest VHS tapes I had so she could get my mannerisms,” Grandin said back in 2010. “She plays me in the ’60s and ’70s. It was like seeing a weird time machine seeing her play me.”

Submitted photo.

The movie, which tells the story of Grandin’s successful pursuit of higher education in spite of her autism, earned Danes an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her portrayal, as well as an Emmy for Julia Ormond, who portrayed Temple’s supportive mother Eustacia.

“I’ve been a lot busier since the movie,” Grandin said in a recent telephone interview to preview her April 29 appearance at Southern Door Community Auditorium in Brussels. “People have said it’s inspired them, and that makes me happy. I want these kids with the spectrum label or ADHD or dyslexia or some other special education label, I want them to go out and be successful and I think the movie has been very, very helpful in motivating kids.”

A suggestion that the movie is also motivating parents brings up one of Grandin’s pet peeves.

“I’ve seen too many parents overprotecting the kids,” she said. “They’ll come up to me at meetings and mom’s doing all of the talking. I’ll say, ‘I want to hear from your son.’ Or a mom will raise her hand and say, ‘My son wants to ask you a question.’ And I’ll walk right over to him with a wireless microphone and make him ask the question in front of 600 people. And then I’ll say, ‘I want to commend this kid for asking a question in front of 600 people,’ and they’ll clap. ‘I know you could do it.’ I’ve done that at conferences a bunch of times.

“I’ve seen too many develop that handicapped mentality,” she continued. “‘He’s 21 and I can’t get him out of the basement playing videos games.’ You’ve got to get that under control. I’m hearing that way too often. That’s part of my talk, what I call ‘teachable moments.’ There is a tendency among parents to say ‘No!’ rather than giving them instruction. Say you’re in line at a movie theater. You don’t say ‘No!’ You say, ‘You have to wait your turn.’ You give the instruction.”

And that is exactly why members of P.A.T.H. (Promoting Access to Help with Families with Special Needs & Autism Support of Door County) have asked Temple Grandin to speak on the 29th.

“Her autism did not keep her from being successful, and that’s what parents need to know,” said P.A.T.H. member Deb Doyle. “What I want Temple to reach out and talk about is our responsibilities as parents, to be assertive and to be a part of our kids’ lives, and to provide these opportunities no matter how hard or challenging it is. We need to believe in them. They need to believe in themselves. And we have to help make things happen. It’s not going to be easy. But to listen to her, well, every time I listen to Temple she broadens my thinking more.”

Doyle believes parents can learn from Grandin’s inspiring story.

“She’s very inspiring,” Doyle said. “She was born during an era where kids of her type of disability were institutionalized. Her mother wouldn’t settle for that. Her mother was her biggest advocate. Her mom had to endure a lot to get what she believed would work and help Temple. I find many of our parents today, particularly because of our geographical location, we are a distance from many of the big hubs that provide the services that our kids need, so to keep people coming up here to work with our kids is a big challenge and takes a lot of work on our part.”

For those unfamiliar with Temple Grandin’s story, PATH offered a free showing of Temple Grandin at Crossroads on April 22.

“I think if you’re really not familiar with her, you should see the movie,” Doyle said (it is available for streaming through Amazon Instant Video). “So many people are challenged by the way the autistic brain works and the way these kids think. That movie puts things in such perspective. You can read about and listen to other people talk about it, but when you hear it from the mouth of somebody who lives, eats and breathes it, and then they put it into a visual connotation, a very factual story, oh my god, lightbulbs went off all around me. Now I get it. Sometimes we need to validate those people and listen to what they are trying to tell us. They’re living it. Who better to teach us than them themselves? She’s remarkable.

“When people see the movie and see the work behind the scenes that made Temple the success she is today, it drives a message to all the parents of our responsibilities, no matter how exhausted we are, to get our kids every opportunity imaginable that we know they will benefit from,” Doyle continued. “That’s one of the challenges. You hear this over and over – no two autistic kids are alike. So the challenge is not only to know what to give them but what’s going to be beneficial to them. It’s not like a menu of things and you can pick – this will help and this will help. The kids have to lead the direction and we have to be educators into what our kids are trying to tell us, and take their cues to provide those services and opportunities that we think is going to be a match, and that’s hard. So many things are needed – medical, diet, education. We just have to be cognizant of that and continue to try to make connections with other resources and model that and bring it up here to our kids the best we can.”