110+ Temple Grandin Quotes On Education, Animals And Her Mor

Temple Grandin is an American educator, author, and animal scientist. She is also an advocate for autism awareness, and is widely known for her work in animal science and livestock handling. Grandin has been featured in numerous media outlets and is the subject of the 2010 biopic Temple Grandin. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Temple Grandin on education, animals, her mor.

Top 10 Temple Grandin Quotes

1. What would happen if the autism gene was eliminated from the gene pool? You would have a bunch of people standing around in a cave, chatting and socializing and not getting anything done.
2. I am different, not less
3. If you have a 2 or 3 year old who is not talking, you must start an early intervention program. The worst thing you can do with an autistic 3 year old is to do nothing.
4. People are always looking for the single magic bullet that will totally change everything. There is no single magic bullet.
5. I can remember the frustration of not being able to talk. I knew what I wanted to say, but I could not get the words out, so I would just scream.
6. In special education, there's too much emphasis placed on the deficit and not enough on the strength.
7. Social thinking skills must be directly taught to children and adults with ASD. Doing so opens doors of social understandings in all areas of life.
8. You got to get away from words if you want to understand any animal. It thinks in pictures, it thinks in smells, it thinks in touch sensations - little sound bites like, it's a very detailed memory.
9. If I could snap my fingers and be nonautistic, I would not. Autism is part of what I am.
10. People can live up to high standards, but they can't live up to perfection.

Temple Grandin Short Quotes

• I cannot emphasize enough the importance of a good teacher.
• Curiosity is the other side of caution.
• I am a big believer in early intervention.
• Pressure is calming to the nervous system.
• I obtain great satisfaction out of using my intellect.
• I am also a believer in an integrated treatment approach to autism.
• You got barn cats and you want to make them tamed, you need to get them as kittens.
• People with autism aren't interested in social chit-chat.
• And while we are on the subject of medication you always need to look at risk versus benefit.
• Half of Silicon Valley's got a little bit of autism.

Temple Grandin Quotes About Education

A treatment method or an educational method that will work for one child may not work for another child. The one common denominator for all of the young children is that early intervention does work, and it seems to improve the prognosis. — Temple Grandin

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

When kids are really little, they all look the same. No speech, no social relatedness, cannot emphasize enough the importance of early educational intervention. — Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin Quotes About Animals

I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we've got to do it right. We've got to give those animals a decent life, and we've got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect. — Temple Grandin

As you may know, some of the stereotyped behaviors exhibited by autistic children are also found in zoo animals who are raised in a barren environment. — Temple Grandin

It is important that our relationship with farm animals is reciprocal. We owe animals a decent life and a painless death. I have observed that the people who are completely out of touch with nature are the most afraid of death. — Temple Grandin

There is a small segment of people with autism that have savant skills, where they can memorize entire maps of whole entire city. They can do calendar calculations. And this is similar to some of the skills that animals have. — Temple Grandin

A cat can be social, but a dog, we've bred this hyper social animal that's really truly different and will do stuff for us just to please us with praise and stroking. — Temple Grandin

Research has shown that a barren environment is much more damaging to baby animals than it is to adult animals. It does not hurt the adult animals the same way it damages babies. — Temple Grandin

Different cats don't like certain litter. They also don't like an unstable floor, no animal like's unstable floor. So if you put a thin piece of plastic down under a litter box and the cat walks on it and starts to slip, they don't like that. Any animal doesn't like an unstable floor. — Temple Grandin

The animal that I have worked with the most is beef cattle, so that's my favorite animal, but I like all animals. — Temple Grandin

I've got a lot of people that are really good at taming animals and working with animals; and they can't explain how they do. They just get a feeling from the animal. — Temple Grandin

Autism's an important part of who I am, but I'm a college professor and an animal scientist first. And I wouldn't want to change 'cause I like the logical way I think. — Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin Quotes About Children

You have got to keep autistic children engaged with the world. You cannot let them tune out. — Temple Grandin

I'm a child of the 50s. I was expected to have table manners. There needs to be some expectations for behavior. I'm seeing some children today, they don't push them enough. — Temple Grandin

You can't punish a child who is acting out because of sensory overload. — Temple Grandin

Some children may need a behavioral approach, whereas other children may need a sensory approach. — Temple Grandin

Some teachers just have a knack for working with autistic children. Other teachers do not have it. — Temple Grandin

Some autistic children cannot stand the sound of certain voices. I have come across cases where teachers tell me that certain children have problems with their voice or another person's voice. This problem tends to be related to high-pitched ladies' voices. — Temple Grandin

Children between the ages of five to ten years are even more variable. They are going to vary from very high functioning, capable of doing normal school work, to nonverbal who have all kinds of neurological problems. — Temple Grandin

We have got to work on keeping these children engaged with the world. — Temple Grandin

One of the things I want to do is be a decent role model. I've got a lot of emails and stuff from children. They look up to me. Kids get different labels and things like that and I want those kids to succeed. — Temple Grandin

I think there's some kids that need to go from being a child to being a grown-up. You get out in the tech communities, the parents just apprentice their kid into the industry and they just skip being a teenager. — Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin Quotes About Autistic

I know a number of autistic adults that are doing extremely well on Prozac. — Temple Grandin

Autism's a very big spectrum. At one end of the spectrum, Einstein would probably be labeled autistic, Steve Jobs, half of Silicon Valley, you know, Van Gogh. And at the other end of the spectrum, you got much more severe handicaps where they never learn to speak. — Temple Grandin

The autistic brain tends to be a specialist brain, good at one thing, bad at something else. — Temple Grandin

In the 50s and 60s, kids were taught how to shake hands. They were taught how to have manners. There needs to be a lot more of that kind of stuff because the autistic mind doesn't pick up social things and subtle cues. — Temple Grandin

I think that autistic brains tend to be specialized brains. Autistic people tend to be less social. It takes a ton of processor space in the brain to have all the social circuits. I mean after all, the first stone spear was not designed by the totally social people. — Temple Grandin

Steve Jobs was probably mildly on the autistic spectrum. Basically, you've probably known people who were geeky and socially awkward but very smart. When does geeks and nerds become autism? That's a gray area. Half the people in Silicon Valley probably have autism. — Temple Grandin

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

In fact, there are autism clusters, you know, around some of the big tech centers. You take two socially awkward computer programmers and put them together, that can kind of concentrate the autistic genes. — Temple Grandin

People on the autistic spectrum tend to get fixated on what they think. — Temple Grandin

I feel very strongly that if you got rid of all of the autistic genetics you're not going to have any scientists. There'd be no computer people. You'd lose a lot of artists and musicians. There'd be a horrible price to pay. — Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin Quotes About Problems

One of my sensory problems was hearing sensitivity, where certain loud noises, such as a school bell, hurt my ears. It sounded like a dentist drill going through my ears. — Temple Grandin

I use my mind to solve problems and invent things. — Temple Grandin

In my opinion, one of the greatest animal-welfare problems is the physical abuse of livestock during transportation.... Typical abuses I have witnessed with alarming frequency are; hitting, beating, use of badly maintained trucks, jabbing of short objects into animals, and deliberate cruelty. — Temple Grandin

I like to figure things out and solve problems. — Temple Grandin

One of the places where research is needed is all the sensory problems. And you get sensory problems not just with autism, but with dyslexia, learning problems, ADHD, attention deficit, you know, things like sound sensitivity, problems with fluorescent lighting. — Temple Grandin

One of the big areas I'd like to see a lot more research done on is the sensory problems, and it's real variable. One kid's got sound sensitivity; another one can't tolerate fluorescent lights. I can't stand scratchy clothes. — Temple Grandin

Engineering is easy - it's the people problems that are hard. — Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin Quotes About Work

My mind works like Google for images. You put in a key word; it brings up pictures. — Temple Grandin

The people that were socially awkward from my generation, they all had paper routes and that taught them the discipline of work. — Temple Grandin

The thing is, autism is a big spectrum. Going from folks who remain nonverbal, all the way up to, ya know, famous scientists and musicians. And we've got to work on strengths. We also have to work on teaching basic manners and skills. — Temple Grandin

Some cats don't like different types of kitty litter. So might try different types of kitty litter sometimes that works. You know, they don't like one type that sticks to the paws and they don't like it. — Temple Grandin

We found if you took the dog out for 45 minutes a day and worked with it that the solitary stress hormone, cortisol, went down. But then it went right back up again because they didn't keep doing it. — Temple Grandin

What do I do when I go home? Work. That's basically my social life. I'm married to work. — Temple Grandin

The world needs different kinds of minds to work together. — Temple Grandin

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

If I did not have my work, I would not have any life. — Temple Grandin

My life is basically my work. — Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin Quotes About Autism

I strongly recommend that students with autism get involved in special interest clubs in some of the areas they naturally excel at. Being with people who share your interests makes socializing easier. — Temple Grandin

People on the autism spectrum don't think the same way you do. In my life, people who made a difference were those who didn't see labels, who believed in building on what was there. These were people who didn't try to drag me into their world, but came into mine instead. — Temple Grandin

The most important thing people did for me was to expose me to new things. — Temple Grandin

It is never too late to expand the mind of a person on the autism spectrum. — Temple Grandin

If you start using a medication in a person with autism, you should see an obvious improvement in behavior in a short period of time. If you do not see an obvious improvement, they probably should not be taking the stuff. It is that simple. — Temple Grandin

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 is an extremely variable disorder. — Temple Grandin

I think a brain can be made "more thinking" or made "more emotional." At what point does this become abnormal? Autism in its milder variants, I think, is part of normal human variation. — Temple Grandin

When you take a drug to treat high blood pressure or diabetes, you have an objective test to measure blood pressure and the amount of sugar in the blood. It is straight-forward. With autism, you are looking for changes in behavior. — Temple Grandin

These diagnostic profiles like depression, ADHD, autism, dyslexia, it's half science and the other half is a committee of doctors bickering over what it should be, and it has changed. It's not precise like a diagnosis of tuberculosis would be very precise. — Temple Grandin

Temple Grandin Famous Quotes And Sayings

I think one of the worst things schools have done is taken out all of the stuff like art, music, woodworking, sewing, cooking, welding, auto-shop. All these things you can turn into careers. How can you get interested in these careers if you don't try them on a little bit? — Temple Grandin

I think sometimes parents and teachers fail to stretch kids. My mother had a very good sense of how to stretch me just slightly outside my comfort zone. — Temple Grandin

I can remember being bullied and teased. It was absolutely horrible. I got kicked out of ninth grade for throwing a book at a girl who teased me. It was absolutely terrible. — Temple Grandin

I'm seeing too many smart kind of socially awkward kids, a lot milder than I was, not getting employment because they're not learning job skills. — Temple Grandin

The squeeze machine is not going to cure anybody, but it may help them relax; and a relaxed person will usually have better behavior. — Temple Grandin

I'm seeing too many kind of socially awkward kids that get through schools and then they can't hold a job because they haven't learned the discipline of get up in the morning. — Temple Grandin

Giving those animals [in shelter] quality time - now, I have been in some of the shelters where the cats have been in group housing. Well if you have a cat that never gets out of sternal recumbency, now what that means is that [inaudible] - that's a stressed cat. If they lay on their side, then they are not stressed out. — Temple Grandin

I'd rather have a kid come up to me and tell me that he loves dinosaurs or he loves airplanes or he likes training dogs or I like Shakespeare. I mean, just something. — Temple Grandin

From a scientific standpoint, Aspergers and autism are one syndrome. Aspergers is part of the autism spectrum, not a separate disorder. — Temple Grandin

You have to get autistic kids out and expose them to things, but do this without any surprises, so they know what to expect. You have to find skilled mentors to teach them things. For me, it was an aunt, and it was my science teacher. You need to find the things they're interested in and good at and expand on this. — Temple Grandin

I have been on the same dose of anti-depressants for 15 years, and my nerves still go up and down in cycles; but my nerves are cycling at a lower level than they were before. — Temple Grandin

By looking at autistic kids, you can't tell when you're working with them who you're going to pull out, who is going to become verbal and who's not. And there seem to be certain kids who, as they learn more and more, they get less autistic acting, and they learn social skills enough so that they can turn out socially normal. — Temple Grandin

Medication should never be considered the only tool for helping a person. — Temple Grandin

I would not be here now if I did not have anti-depressants. — Temple Grandin

In an ideal world the scientist should find a method to prevent the most severe forms of autism but allow the milder forms to survive. After all, the really social people did not invent the first stone spear. It was probably invented by an Aspie who chipped away at rocks while the other people socialized around the campfire. Without autism traits we might still be living in caves. — Temple Grandin

Whereas an elephant that was scared to death that diesel powered equipment, equipment that ran on a gas engine, was just fine. Because somebody had attacked it with construction equipment. But if it had a diesel engine, it was bad. — Temple Grandin

I'm seeing too many kids where they get fixated on their own autism. I'd rather have them get fixated that they like programming computers or they like art or they want to sing in the church choir or they want to train dogs, you know, something that they can turn into a career. — Temple Grandin

I can explain how a person with autism thinks. I am very, very interested in how people think. It's been a gradual process of learning more and more about how my thinking process is different. You know it's bottom up - you take specific examples to make concepts and then I put them in categories. — Temple Grandin

If by some magic, autism had been eradicated from the face of the Earth, then men would still be socializing in front of a wood fire at the entrance to a cave. — Temple Grandin

Sometimes we forget about common sense. Autism is used too much as an excuse for bad behavior. — Temple Grandin

I'm pure geek, pure logic. — Temple Grandin

My mother was always expanding my art skills and getting me to paint different things. You always got to push some. And, I mean, I learned basic things like getting up on time, how to shop - you know, you don't touch things in a store you're not going to buy. These things were taught very young. I don't see today enough of this basic, you know, basic skill teaching. — Temple Grandin

You get these fear memories that are hard to undo. — Temple Grandin

I think that the definition of autism is too broad. You got to remember, autism definition is a behavioral profiling. — Temple Grandin

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

There is three different ways that autistic kids will interact with animals.And they also need to make sure that they're not getting too rough with their animals - they need to learn how to pet the dog properly, they can't be pulling its ears and things like that. — Temple Grandin

Sometimes you have to go outside your field of study to find the right people. — Temple Grandin

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

Us visual thinkers like me, be good at things like industrial design, graphics, art, those kind of jobs. — Temple Grandin

Dogs serve people, but people serve cats. — Temple Grandin

But my favorite of Einstein's words on religion is "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." I like this because both science and religion are needed to answer life's great questions. — Temple Grandin

I'm a big believer in getting kids involved in things where there's a shared interest because that's where they can have friends. — Temple Grandin

You take somebody - one person has definitely got autism, you got another person that maybe has some of those traits and maybe there's some anxiety, depression, some epilepsy or something in the family history. Put them together, you're more likely to have a severely autistic kid than if you don't have any neurological problems in the family history. — Temple Grandin

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

A cat you train with clicker training and what you've got to do is pair the click with a food reward. And he's doing the stuff because you get a food reward. Once you can do it all after a lot training with no food reward. — Temple Grandin

It [cats going outside the litter box] might have something to do with - you know, I am just thinking that if I am the cat, when I'm pooping, you know, I've got to strain a little bit more and maybe that affects how the kitty litter feels on my paws. I'd try a different sub straight, or something like that - make sure it's not slippery. — Temple Grandin

I try to return my calls but I get inundated with emails and I can't answer them all. So often, I have to refer to them my webpage and the frequently asked questions or refer them to the books. But if they take the time to call me, I try to call back. You know, I am really busy, but just happened to have an hour in the hotel room and had some time before I have to meet some people about 20 minutes. — Temple Grandin

Life Lessons by Temple Grandin

1. Temple Grandin teaches us the importance of understanding and embracing differences, as well as the power of perseverance and resilience.
2. She also demonstrates the value of using creative problem-solving to overcome obstacles and the importance of advocating for yourself and others.
3. Finally, her work emphasizes the importance of utilizing your unique skills and strengths to make a positive impact in the world.