Temple Grandin: She Thinks in Pictures

When she was two, she didn't speak.

Doctors said she would never talk, and that she should live in an institution.

Her mother said no.

This is the story of Temple Grandin.

Hello, and welcome to Bright Lives English. Real stories. Real English.

Today's level is B1. In this story, listen for five new words.

Autism. Autism is a difference in how a person's brain works.

It can change how people talk, learn, and feel sounds and touch. Temple is autistic.

Institution. An institution is a large building where people live and are looked after, often far from their families.

Doctors wanted to send her to an institution.

Calm. When you calm someone, you help them feel less worried or afraid. The past is calmed.

Deep pressure calmed her.

Cattle. Cattle are cows and bulls that people keep on farms.

It's a plural word: we say "the cattle are". She watched the cattle on her aunt's ranch.

Design. When you design something, you plan how it will look and work.

She designed new systems for farms.

Now, one pattern: would, for the future in the past. Doctors said she would never talk.

Ready? Let's begin.

Temple Grandin was born in Boston, in the United States, in 1947.

As a small child, she didn't speak.

Loud sounds hurt her ears, and she hated being hugged.

When she was two, doctors said she had brain damage.

They said she would never talk, and that she should go to an institution.

But her mother refused, and found her a speech teacher.

Slowly, Temple learned to talk.

At school, other children laughed at her, and life was very hard.

But a science teacher, William Carlock, believed in her and showed her how exciting science could be.

At fifteen, she spent a summer on her aunt's ranch in Arizona.

She watched the cattle go into a squeeze chute, a machine that held them tightly.

The pressure calmed the animals.

Temple had an idea.

At eighteen, with help from her teacher, she built her own squeeze machine.

When she felt anxious, the deep pressure calmed her too.

Temple thinks in pictures.

She can walk through a farm in her mind, like watching a film.

She understood that cattle, like her, were afraid of small things: shadows, sudden noises and quick movements.

In the 1970s, the cattle business was a world of men.

Few people believed she would succeed.

But she designed calmer, curved paths for cattle.

Today, almost half of the cattle in North America are handled in a system she designed.

Temple became a professor at Colorado State University.

The girl who doctors said would never talk now speaks to audiences all over the world, about animals and about autism.

Let's review. Temple is autistic.

Doctors wanted to send her to an institution.

Deep pressure calmed her.

She watched the cattle.

And she designed new systems for farms.

And remember: doctors said she would never talk.

Temple's story teaches us that a different mind can see what others miss.

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