Every once in awhile someone comes along and makes a lasting contribution to society and you don't have to look any farther than Dr. Temple Grandin, as she is one of the worlds most well known adults with Autism and gives hope to families that have been affected by it. Keep in mind that not everyone with Autism will be able to achieve what she has been able to do in her life, which is pretty remarkable. She has authored several books and has had a movie made about her life called "Temple Grandin" and is a 100% must see! After watching it, you will come away with a new out look on life and will want to run out and start reading all her books, and you should as she offers so much insight for people with Autism. I would like to make a pitch that her books should be required reading for all educators and health care professionals who work with people with mental disabilities.
Temple is also the inventor of the "Squeeze Machine" a device she devised herself to help calm hypersensitive people and is in the movie and I do not want to ruin it for people who have not seen it yet, so I will leave it at that. Her work in the Animal world is just as impressive as her work in the Autism field and her efforts basically changed the Livestock Industry and how they operate. I would like to personally say thank you Temple for that as I am a big time Animal lover and know it was a hard thing to get accomplished, but the world is a better place because of it.
My wife once met Temple at an Autism Conference and when she came home, she said that Temple came up to her and was so attracted to the Border Collie purse that she had with her that day and that Temple gave her such a wonderful compliment on it. I only bring this up because the purse was a Christmas present for my wife and I still remember the day I bought it, I was at the purse store and said it to myself "it has a pretty wild pattern on it" but it also has Border Collies on it and we had two of them at the time, so it came home and went under the tree. Now when ever the purse comes out of the closet, my wife has a great memory of the day she got to have a very special moment with a very special person.
