Temple Grandin (The Movie)

Yesterday I was very emotionally moved when I saw the movie "Temple Grandin" as a Special on HBO. The movie was spot on and in great correlation with the book she had written. I do hope this movie comes out on DVD so that I may buy it, and educate people later on with it.

The movie would be a great educational tool, I believe, for parents if the educator (which we will say is myself) had the oppertunity to be with the parent and explain things as the movie progressed. There are certain things in the movie which may seem odd unless explained. I will list some examples:

* When Temple's Aunt is speaking to her before bedtime she says, "Get enough sleep because we wake with the rooster around here." Temple immediately had the picture of her aunt and uncle sitting on the roof of their farmhouse crowing along with the rooster. There are several other connotations such as this in the movie as well.

* In the same room as previously stated, in a conversation between the Aunt and Tample, Temple asks how she could be able to recognize her room. Her Aunt takes a piece of paper and with a sharpie writes "Temple's Room" and hangs it on her door. During the process of writing on the paper the sound of the sharpie is very loud, even to the movie listener. For a split second I thought to myself "Jeez mom turn the tv down!" However, the sound was meant to be "annoying and loud" because that is the sensory problem most autistics have. Sounds can be excessively loud and can be painful and overwhelming as well. Temple had the same sensory issue with hugging (which is common among autistics) and she would only eat Jello and Yogurt because of the sensation in her mouth AND the fact that there was never anything crunchy in yogurt or Jello to make a painful sound in her ear when she ate.

*While in the truck with her aunt, Temple is referring to a show she had seen on television that she thought was particularly interesting, especially a sequence when a man with a rifle says, "Would you like me to open the gate?". Temple recited that phrase over and over again, exhausting it. Autistic children and adults tend to repeat phrases they find audibly appealing. The man Temple was referring to had an accent and the sound of his voice along with the rhythm was especially pleasing to her ears.

There are many more scenes in this movie that were interesting and I shall write about each one in length in later blogs! Thank you for reading, and consider this an introduction!