Saturday night I saw down with my family to watch a biopic for Temple Grandin. I have been reading about Dr Template Grandin for years and years. I expected to love it ... and I did. It is a must-see movie.

Temple is a highly successful 62-year old woman with autism. She invented a career for herself in the cattle industry. She has transformed how autism is seen and how cows (and many other prey animals) are handled.

The movie quickly moved from "4-year old Temple being diagnosed with autism" to "33-year old Temple with a masters degree  in animal science."  

Sensory integration disorder was clearly explained. This is such a hard issue for people to understand. I still remember issues that happened in first grade. So I explained SID to Natasha's  first grade teacher. Seriously... the teacher thought that I was making it up... to excuse Natasha's bad behavior. (ARGH!)

I LOVED that Template's internal thought process was shown. For example Template's aunt said, "We get up with the rooster."  Template understood this literally. She saw a picture in head. Her aunt, uncle and rooster were sitting on top of the house and crowing.

Template has said that her first language was pictures. The spoken word was her second language which she didn't start using until she was 3 to 4 years old.

While watching the movie I kept seeing my daughter's issues over and over. She has many issues that overlap with the autistic spectrum.  My darling Natasha is 12 years old. She was adopted from Ukraine when she was 3.5 years old. Over the years she picked up many labels; PTSD, ADHD, dyslexia, sensory integration disorder, attachment issues.

Recently my darling has experienced sleeping problems. She has been waking up at 2am in the morning and struggling to sleep again. The movie reminded me that pressure is calming. I am going to buy a weighted blanket and see if it helps.

Image Credit:flickr