Editing Temple Grandin (section)

==Early life==
===Family===
{{Autism rights movement|people}}
Mary Temple Grandin was born in [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]], into a wealthy family. One of the family's employees was also named Mary, so Grandin was referred to by her middle name, Temple, to avoid confusion.<ref>{{cite book |page=[https://archive.org/details/thorninmypockett00cutl/page/204 204] |title=A Thorn in My Pocket: Temple Grandin's Mother Tells the Family Story |first=Eustacia |last=Cutler |year=2004 |publisher=Future Horizons |isbn=9781932565164 |url=https://archive.org/details/thorninmypockett00cutl/page/204 }}</ref> Temple's mother is Anna Eustacia Purves (later Cutler), an actress, singer, and granddaughter of John Coleman Purves (co-inventor of the aviation [[autopilot]]). She has a degree in English from [[Harvard University]].<ref name="chapter10">{{cite book |chapter=10 |title=A Thorn in My Pocket: Temple Grandin's Mother Tells the Family Story |first=Eustacia |last=Cutler |year=2004 |publisher=Future Horizons |isbn=9781932565164 |url=https://archive.org/details/thorninmypockett00cutl }}</ref> Temple's father was Richard McCurdy Grandin,<ref name="geni">{{cite web |url=https://www.geni.com/people/Richard-Grandin/6000000018885300108 |title=Richard McCurdy Grandin |website=Geni.com |date=June 9, 1914 |access-date=April 14, 2019 |archive-date=July 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180726005522/https://www.geni.com/people/Richard-Grandin/6000000018885300108 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.geni.com/people/Anna-Purves/6000000018884817999 |title=Anna Eustacia Purves |website=Geni.com |date=December 12, 1926 |access-date=April 14, 2019 |archive-date=July 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180726005923/https://www.geni.com/people/Anna-Purves/6000000018884817999 |url-status=live }}</ref> a real estate agent and heir to the largest corporate wheat farm business in the United States at the time, [[Grandin brothers|Grandin Farms]].<ref name="autism.com">{{cite web |url=https://www.autism.com/advocacy_grandin |title=Temple Grandin: An Inside View of Autism |last=Grandin |first=Temple |website=Autism Research Institute |access-date=April 14, 2019 |archive-date=December 16, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171216120242/https://www.autism.com/advocacy_grandin |url-status=live }}</ref> Grandin's parents divorced when she was 15, and her mother eventually went on to marry Ben Cutler, a [[New York City|New York]] saxophonist,<ref name="nyt">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/15/arts/ben-cutler-96-whose-bands-entertained-the-society-set.html |title=Ben Cutler, 96, Whose Bands Entertained the Society Set |date=January 15, 2001 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |issn=0362-4331 |access-date=April 14, 2019 |archive-date=July 25, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725215608/https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/15/arts/ben-cutler-96-whose-bands-entertained-the-society-set.html |url-status=live }}</ref> in 1965, when Grandin was 18 years old. Grandin's father died in [[California]] in 1993.<ref name="geni"/>

Grandin has three younger siblings: two sisters and a brother. Grandin has described one of her sisters as being [[dyslexic]]. Her younger sister is an artist, her other sister is a sculptor, and her brother is a banker.<ref name="autism.com" /><ref>{{cite book |page=[https://archive.org/details/thorninmypockett00cutl/page/205 205] |title=A Thorn in My Pocket: Temple Grandin's Mother Tells the Family Story |first=Eustacia |last=Cutler |year=2004 |publisher=Future Horizons |isbn=9781932565164 |url=https://archive.org/details/thorninmypockett00cutl/page/205 }}</ref> [[John Livingston Grandin]] (Temple's paternal great-grandfather) and his brother [[Grandin brothers|William James Grandin]] were French [[Huguenots]] who drilled for oil. John Grandin intended to cut a deal with [[John D. Rockefeller]] in a meeting, but the latter kept him waiting so long that he walked out before Rockefeller arrived. The brothers then went into banking, and when [[Jay Cooke]]'s firm collapsed, they received thousands of acres of undeveloped land in [[North Dakota]] as debt [[Collateralized debt obligation|collateral]]. They set up wheat farming in the [[Red River Valley]] and housed the workers in dormitories. The town of [[Grandin, North Dakota]], is named after John Livingston Grandin.<ref name="chapter10" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Federal Writer's Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of North Dakota |title=The WPA Guide To 1930s North Dakota |year=1990 |publisher=State Historical Society of North Dakota |isbn=978-1891419140 |pages=193–194 |edition=2nd}}</ref>

Although raised in the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal]] Church, early on Grandin [[Atheism|gave up on a belief in a personal deity or intention]] in favor of a more scientific perspective.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9HQIHnREqhkC&pg=PT384 |page=282 |title=An anthropologist on Mars: Seven paradoxical tales |first=Oliver |last=Sacks |author-link=Oliver Sacks |publisher=Vintage Books: A division of Penguin Random House, LLC |location=New York |date=1996 |isbn=9780345805881 |access-date=March 27, 2017 |archive-date=August 18, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200818213119/https://books.google.com/books?id=9HQIHnREqhkC&pg=PT384 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Diagnosis===
Grandin was not formally diagnosed with autism until her adulthood. When she was two, the only formal diagnosis given to her was "brain damage",<ref name="emergence">{{cite book |last1=Grandin |first1=Temple |last2=Scariano |first2=Margaret M. |title=Emergence: Labeled Autistic |page=[https://archive.org/details/emergencelabeled00gran/page/91 91] |publisher=Grand Central Publishing |year=1996 |isbn=9780446671828 |url=https://archive.org/details/emergencelabeled00gran/page/91 }}</ref><ref name="wrongplanet">{{cite web |url=https://wrongplanet.net/interview-with-temple-grandin/ |title=Interview with Temple Grandin |date=January 2, 2006 |access-date=April 14, 2019 |archive-date=November 5, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181105222356/https://wrongplanet.net/interview-with-temple-grandin/ |url-status=live }}</ref> a finding finally dismissed through [[brain imaging|cerebral imaging]] at the [[University of Utah]] by the time she turned 63 in 2010.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Autistic Brain |url=https://archive.org/details/autisticbrainthi0000gran |url-access=registration |last=Grandin |first=Temple |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |year=2013 |isbn=978-0547636450}}</ref> While Grandin was still in her mid-teens, her mother chanced upon a diagnostic checklist for autism. After reviewing the checklist, Grandin's mother hypothesised that Grandin's symptoms were best explained by the disorder. Grandin was later determined to be an [[autistic savant]].<ref name="emergence" /><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/researchers-reveal-first-brain-study-of-temple-grandin/ |title=Researchers reveal first brain study of Temple Grandin |last=Hughes |first=Virginia |date=October 14, 2012 |website=SpectrumNews.org |publisher=[[Simons Foundation]] |access-date=April 14, 2019 |archive-date=August 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190821131846/https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/researchers-reveal-first-brain-study-of-temple-grandin/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-makes-temple-grandins-brain-special-76672628/ |title=What Makes Temple Grandin's Brain Special? |last=Nuwer |first=Rachel |author-link=Rachel Nuwer |date=October 17, 2012 |newspaper=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]] |publisher=[[Smithsonian Institution]] |access-date=April 14, 2019 |archive-date=August 21, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190821135548/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/what-makes-temple-grandins-brain-special-76672628/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/talking-back/a-little-hard-science-from-the-big-easy-temple-grandins-brain-and-transgenic-sniffer-mice/ |title=A Little Hard Science from the Big Easy: Temple Grandin's Brain and Transgenic Sniffer Mice |last=Stix |first=Gary |date=October 19, 2012 |website=ScientificAmerican.com |publisher=Springer Nature |access-date=April 14, 2019 |archive-date=July 3, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190703130352/https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/talking-back/a-little-hard-science-from-the-big-easy-temple-grandins-brain-and-transgenic-sniffer-mice/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://discovermagazine.com/2013/april/2-exploring-temple-grandins-brain |title=Exploring Temple Grandin's Brain |last=McGowan |first=Kat |date=March 13, 2013 |website=[[Discover Magazine]] |publisher=Kalmbach Publishing |access-date=April 14, 2019 |archive-date=September 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200925092758/https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/exploring-temple-grandins-brain/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Early childhood===
When Grandin was a toddler, the medical advice at the time for a diagnosis like hers was to recommend institutionalization,<ref>{{cite web |title=Temple Grandin: Look at what people can do, not what they can't |url=https://news.mit.edu/2015/temple-grandin-talk-0318 |website=MIT News {{!}} Massachusetts Institute of Technology |access-date=25 May 2024 |language=en |date=18 March 2015}}</ref> a measure that caused a bitter rift of opinion between Grandin's parents. Her father was keen to follow this advice, while her mother was strongly opposed to the idea.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Allen |first1=Jennifer |title=A Day with the great Eustacia Cutler! |url=https://www.aspergers101.com/day-great-eustacia-cutler/ |website=Aspergers101 |access-date=25 May 2024 |date=2014}}</ref>

Grandin's mother took her to the world's leading special needs researchers at the [[Boston Children's Hospital]], with the hope of finding an alternative to institutionalization. Grandin's mother eventually found a neurologist who suggested a trial of speech therapy. A speech therapist was hired and Grandin received personalized training from the age of two and a half.<ref>{{cite journal |last=White |first=Randall |date=2005 |title=Autism First-Hand: An Expert Interview with Temple Grandin |url=http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/498153 |journal=Medscape Psychiatry |access-date=April 14, 2019 |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160903223734/http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/498153 |archive-date=September 3, 2016}}</ref> Her mother later hired a nanny when she was aged three and a half to play turn taking games with Temple and her sister. Grandin started kindergarten in Dedham Country Day School. Her teachers and classmates tried to create an environment to accommodate Grandin's needs and sensitivities.

While Grandin has said she considers herself fortunate to have had supportive mentors from elementary school onward, she has also stated that junior high and high school were the most unpleasant times of her life.<ref>{{cite book |last=Grandin |first=Temple |title=Thinking in Pictures: And Other Reports from My Life with Autism |url=https://archive.org/details/thinkinginpictur00gran |url-access=registration |isbn=9780385477925 |location=New York |publisher=Doubleday |year=1995}}</ref>

===Middle school and high school===
Grandin attended [[Beaver Country Day School]] from seventh to ninth grade. She was expelled at the age of 14 for throwing a book at a schoolmate who taunted her. Grandin described herself as the "nerdy kid" whom everyone ridiculed. She has described occasions when she walked down the hallway and her fellow students kept calling her a "tape recorder" because she would [[perseveration|perseverate]]. Grandin stated in 2012, "I could laugh about it now, but back then it really hurt."<ref>{{cite web |title=Temple Grandin Inducted into Colorado Women's Hall of Fame |url=http://www.wherefoodcomesfrom.com/article/2281/Temple-Grandin-Inducted-into-Colorado-Womens-Hall-of-Fame |date=March 8, 2012 |access-date=April 14, 2019 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228000859/http://www.wherefoodcomesfrom.com/article/2281/Temple-Grandin-Inducted-into-Colorado-Womens-Hall-of-Fame |archive-date=December 28, 2013}}</ref>

The year after her expulsion, Grandin's parents divorced. Three years later, Grandin's mother married Ben Cutler, a New York saxophonist.<ref name="nyt" /> At 15 Grandin spent a summer on the [[Arizona]] ranch of Ben Cutler's sister, Ann, and this would become a formative experience toward her subsequent career interest.

Several reports and sources cited the different names of the schools Grandin attended: Beaver Country Day School or Cherry Falls Girls' School (the latter named in her first book, ''Emergence: Labeled Autistic''); and Hampshire Country School or Mountain Day School (the latter called by Grandin in the early books). Following her expulsion from Beaver Country Day School, Grandin's mother enrolled her at Hampshire Country School in Rindge, New Hampshire. That school was founded in 1948 by Boston child psychologist, Henry Patey, for the students of "exceptional potential (gifted) that have not been successful in a typical setting". She was accepted there and became Winter Carnival Queen and captain of the hockey team. At HCS, Grandin met William Carlock, a science teacher who had worked for NASA, who became her mentor and helped her significantly toward building up her self-confidence.<ref name="testsite">{{cite web |url=https://www.aspergerstestsite.com/1095/squeeze-machine-by-temple-grandi/ |title=How the squeeze machine came to be |website=Aspergers Test Site |date=June 6, 2013 |access-date=April 14, 2019 |archive-date=July 3, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190703130828/https://www.aspergerstestsite.com/1095/squeeze-machine-by-temple-grandi/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

It was Carlock who encouraged Grandin to develop her idea to build her [[squeeze machine]] (hug box) when she returned from her aunt's farm in Arizona in her senior year of high school.<ref name="testsite" /> At the age of 18 when she was still attending Hampshire Country School, with Carlock's and school owner/founder Henry Patey's support, Grandin built the hug box.<ref name="Grandin">{{cite journal |url=https://www.grandin.com/inc/squeeze.html |title=Calming Effects of Deep Touch Pressure in Patients with Autistic Disorder, College Students, and Animals |last=Grandin |first=Temple |journal=Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=63–72 |date=Spring 1992 |pmid=19630623 |doi=10.1089/cap.1992.2.63 |publisher=[[Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.]] |s2cid=15343030 |access-date=April 14, 2019 |archive-date=October 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201006015744/https://www.grandin.com/inc/squeeze.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Carlock's supportive role in Grandin's life continued even after she left Hampshire Country School. As a favor to Henry Patey, the President of the newly founded Franklin Pierce College (5 miles from Hampshire Country School) agreed to accept Temple as a student without the typical records and files of a typical High School student.  When Grandin was facing criticism for her hug box at [[Franklin Pierce College]], it was Carlock who suggested that Grandin undertake scientific experiments to evaluate the efficacy of the device.<ref name="testsite" /> It was his constant guidance to Grandin to refocus the rigid obsessions she experienced with the hug box into a productive assignment that subsequently allowed this study undertaken by Grandin to be widely cited as evidence of Grandin's resourcefulness.

===Higher education===
After she graduated from [[Hampshire Country School]] in 1966, Grandin went on to earn her [[bachelor's degree]] in human [[psychology]] from [[Franklin Pierce College]] in 1970, a [[master's degree]] in [[animal science]] from [[Arizona State University]] in 1975, and a [[doctoral degree]] in animal science from the [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]] in 1989.