Dr. Temple Grandin's Story Is All About Attention

I recently saw the movie about the autistic Dr. Temple Grandin. I had known about her and her amazing work with cows and how they were led to be dipped and ultimately to be slaughtered. Because Temple is so gifted visually and can work out everything in her mind, the creative team gave the audience many examples of how she could actually see things we could not. Claire Danes was terrific as Temple.

Fortunately for Temple, her mother never gave up mainstreaming her, special teachers became her mentors and defenders, her roommate in college was a blind woman who gave Temple the kind of companionship and acceptance she needed. These positive attention-givers counter-acted the continuing negative attention she got from her peers, from the men who were established in the animal husbandry industry and from the rules which excluded her and her mental gifts.

There's been such an increasing number of autistic children born lately, Temple has become a spokesperson for the public's need to realize that autistic kids can grow up to use their special kinds of thinking to make real differences and contributions in many industries.

Special kinds of attention must be paid to bring these kids safely through their childhoods and into their adult lives.