Temple Grandin

Nonfiction | Biography | Middle Grade | Published in 2011

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-6

Chapters 7-9

Chapters 10-13

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1 Summary: “Senses of Fire”

From the beginning of her life, there were signs that Temple Grandin was different. As a baby, she seemed to pull away from others’ touch. She did not speak until she was five years old, and even then, she spoke haltingly. In her youth, Grandin often resorted to tantrums out of frustration. Grandin experienced sensory overload, like many people with autism: Simple things like the feel of her clothing, sudden or loud noises, and groups of people could make her feel overwhelmed.

Nevertheless, even as a young person, Grandin found ways to deal with and get around the difficulties she faced. For instance, she found that twirling in circles—sometimes for long periods of time—helped calm her down. She also realized that she more naturally thought in visual terms rather than abstract and language-oriented ways. In kindergarten, she was asked to sort a series of images: While the other children in her class sorted them alphabetically, by letter (such as grouping an image of an apple and an ape), Grandin instead sorted them by category. In her adult life, Grandin has further learned to excel despite her difficulties. She has become a renowned consultant to the cattle industry, designing inventions and systems that help ensure cattle are treated humanely. In addition, she has become a teacher, a speaker, and an author, writing over 400 articles on both animals and autism.

Chapter 2 Summary: “The Animals’ Advocate”

Grandin is on the phone with a major restaurant chain manager about cattle being mistreated. She has been a consultant with chains like McDonald’s and Wendy’s, which want to prevent the animals raised for their food products from being treated cruelly. Grandin designs buildings and systems that help the animals be processed humanely before being converted to food.

In addition to her work as a consultant, Grandin works as a professor at Colorado State University, where she teaches students about how animals have emotions and thus deserve to be treated well. She explains to her students that people in the past have believed that animals do not have emotions because they do not speak, but her work has helped to change that perception. Grandin’s work has gained the attention of the public. For instance, on the day she is lecturing students about animals having emotions, she is asked to give commentary for a CNN video about pigs being treated inhumanely. In addition, there has been an HBO movie about Grandin’s life, starring Claire Daines as Grandin.

Chapter 3 Summary: “What Is Autism?”

During Grandin’s childhood, her father was convinced she had an intellectual disability and wanted to send her away to a psychiatric facility. When she was three years old, her mother Eustacia took her to see a neurologist, who ruled out these problems and instead suggested interventions, such as speech therapy to help Grandin learn how to speak more clearly. Later, a psychiatrist Grandin’s mother took her to see diagnosed Grandin with autism. At the time, autism was considered a type of schizophrenia, “a severe mental illness” (20). Parents were blamed for the problem; experts at the time believed that autism was caused by parents showing too little affection for a child.

More is known about autism now. It is understood to be a developmental problem rather than something caused by parents. However, there are still mysteries about autism: Scientists do not know why it affects boys more than girls, and why it is appearing more often in children. In addition, autism is hard to test for. Its symptoms include experiencing sensory overload, as happened to Grandin. Children with autism may throw tantrums out of frustration, and people with autism may have a hard time understanding social and emotional cues and contexts. On the other hand, people with autism can display incredible talents and can be incredible visual thinkers. Autism is also now considered a spectrum ranging from mild to severe cases; mild cases are often diagnosed as Asperger’s syndrome.

Grandin’s mother strongly supported her daughter and looked for ways to help her thrive. For instance, she hired a speech teacher to help with Grandin’s speaking abilities. She also hired a nanny who had experience working with children like Grandin and understood how to communicate with her. Knowing that Grandin thought in visual terms, for instance, she showed her a dead, flattened squirrel in the road as an explanation of why one should always look both ways before crossing the street.

Chapters 1-3 Analysis

Montgomery’s Temple Grandin begins by putting readers amid Grandin’s experiences as a person with autism. By describing the sensory overloads Grandin experienced as a child (and still struggles with as an adult), insight is provided to how someone with autism may process their surroundings. This is especially helpful to readers who might be unfamiliar with autism. Through Grandin’s life, the text illuminates autism as a condition. This dual purpose parallels Grandin’s own two-part goals: to work on behalf of animals and people with autism.

Temple Grandin reflects how ideas about autism have changed over time. As explained in Chapter 3, autism was once thought to be a form of schizophrenia, and many people with autism were institutionalized. Thanks to the efforts of experts and advocates like Grandin, attitudes about autism have changed. Montgomery shows that the challenges of autism are balanced by the unique gifts or “blessings” that people with autism can express.

Indeed, a major theme in Temple Grandin is how Grandin utilized her talents and ability to think creatively to overcome difficulties she faced. Grandin attained this ability while quite young, as when she developed the habit of twirling to overcome stress; “[b]y retreating into her own world, she could screen out the confusion around her” (6). Such behavior can be viewed multiple ways: Some might see it as abnormal or even strange, but others understand it as an understandable and even amazing sign of resilience.

Another major theme that emerges in the first three chapters of Temple Grandin is Grandin’s love of animals, which she early on expressed through drawing. Montgomery draws a parallel between what Grandin experienced as a child and what animals are like. Animals, like people, experience emotions; but as a child, Grandin could not communicate easily with people, much like animals. Montgomery makes this clear when she writes, “that's something Temple understands. As a child, she was in exactly the same position as these animals” (16).

The first three chapters in Temple Grandin hint at the success that Grandin has had in her career as an adult. Later in the book, this topic will be explored in depth. Initially, clues related to Grandin’s success are hinted at—such as her phone call with the executive of a major restaurant chain, or the mention of the HBO biopic about her life—to pique readers’ interest.