Dr. Temple Grandin Says ...

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It's important to keep up with the experts in the field of autism/ASD. One of the best ways to do so is to attend conferences. This has a three-fold benefit: to hear the speaker, network, and attain CEUs.

I recently attended a one-day conference sponsored by Future Horizons (largest publishing company for books on autism at www.FHautism.com) Dr. Temple Grandin was the featured speaker. The HBO movie of her life received Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG awards.                                             

Dr. Temple Grandin, Kathie/Temple

Kathie/Paula Aquilla, BSc,OT

Kathie/Jennifer Mcllwee Myers

Highlights from Dr. Temple Grandin:

I've heard Dr. Grandin speak several times before but I believe she was more relaxed and able to interact with the audience this time. She actually made several jokes and smiled a few times. A stiffness to her gait and speech, for sure those were present. Her inability to change was noted and bluntness to her delivery was the same. But I always enjoy Dr. Grandin's message. For those SLPs who don't know, Dr. Grandin is a very high functioning person with autism who shares her message from childhood through her career as an author, speaker, professor at Colorado State University and designer of livestock handling facilities. She is an exemplary person with or without a disability.

What I want to share with you is what Dr. Temple Grandin communicates to her audiences that are important for SLPs and their families with whom you work. These are important because they are life-long. Autism is life-long.

• The strongest piece of advice I can give to both teachers and parents is to develop the child's strengths and teach them from those.
• Drop the label and look at the kid.
• We are too hung up on autism. Autism is part of what I am but it is secondary to what I am.
• Don't worry if you are not doing evidence based therapy/strategies. See what works with each individual child and use it or drop it and try something new.
• Sort everything into categories (teach categorization).
• Teach by specific examples.
• People with autism get worse when they get tired. Sleep is important and many have sleep problems.
• Give children a lot of experiences. Get them out in the real world.
• Start teaching social rules in the real world - one specific explanation at a time.
• Sit kids by windows (natural light) in classrooms.
• Laptops and tablets are better than desktop computers. Desktops often flicker to people with autism.
• Children with autism do not hear hard consonant sounds. Use flashcards to teach and practice them.
• Echolia is output. It is not that they do not understand.
• Children with autism need three types of sensory integration: for sensory seeking, for picky eating habits and for low tone kids
• Anxiety is a part of all people with autism (many, including Temple, are on medications for anxiety - if so, these medications need to be increased in small increments)
• People with autism do not get enough exercise.
• People with autism build relationships through shared interests rather than emotions, but we do have many emotions.
• By the age of middle school, people with autism need to get a job outside the home.
• To person with autism, sell your skill, not yourself.
• It is important to teach good manners.
• For behaviors, make things consistent and constant with the consequences.

How the above information impacts speech/language therapy:

As I went over each of these bulleted statements by Dr. Temple Grandin, I asked myself these questions:

• Does this relate directly to speech/language therapy?
• Is it my responsibility, as an SLP, to assist this young child or adult with a goal such as this?
• Can I, as an SLP, do anything about this?

Most of these I answer with a resounding YES. Yes, I can, should, and will do something about each of these. I can't control the amount of sleep a child gets but I can discuss the importance of it if I know he/she falls asleep in the classroom. The same with medications but the SLP should know when medication is altered in any way.

So, SLPs get on your thinking caps. You don't need a recipe book. You don't need to know what a child cannot do. You can't cure autism but you can sure make it better.

I have already blogged about many of the bulleted points that Dr. Grandin finds important for people across the spectrum and you bet your booties I will be blogging about the others.

                                              Thank you, Dr. Grandin, for being who you are

                                                and for sharing your life so that we might all

learn from you.

                                         "Speech pathologists make good things happen."