Her recommendations come just in time for World Autism Awareness Day on Wednesday, April 2.
?SIGN UP for tips to stay healthy & fit with the top moves, clean eats, health trends & more delivered right to your inbox twice a week?
She recalls being bullied, ridiculed and underestimated as a child and teenager and believes that her work ethic has always been a major key to her success.
Her work ethic started early. Grandin recalls wearing her Sunday best when she was nine years old, and the often-timid child being required to help her mother as a party hostess.
Related: Experiencing Parenting Fatigue? Why Temple Grandin Wants You to Focus on the Future
Temple Grandin teaching an animal sciences class at Colorado State UniversityColorado State University
A 2024 U.S. Dept. of Labor Statistics Studyreveals an estimated 77% unemployment rate for adults with autism after graduating from high school, as well as many years later.
Related: 'Temple Grandin Has Some Great Tips to Help Kids With Autism Cope During the Coronavirus Quarantine
Temple Grandin on a cattle ranchRosalie Winard
“It’s never too late to start, but they’ve got to learn how to work. Work skills are not the same as academic skills,” Grandin said. “I am meeting 16-year-olds in which everything is being done for them,” Grandin said. “They’ve never been shopping by themselves and they haven’t learned how to handle a bank account. These are all important life skills.”
Grandin developed a strong worth ethic early in her life and was crucial as she pursued her career in the livestock industry. As a result of her extensive animal research, most of the big cattle processing plants in the U.S. and Canada use a system she developed, the Center Track Restrainer System, to improve cattle handling operations.
Temple Grandin spending time with her friend's dog, Louie, a fluffy Pembroke CorgiKelly Buster
In the book’s forward, Grandin says, “We do not want our autism to be the whole of our lives. This is neither healthy nor wise. I think that people who are able should get out in the community and get jobs. Without work, no matter how big or small the job, life would become small and unsatisfying for me. With work, we discover we can give back to our family and community that has given so much to us.”
Temple Grandin's Best Advice for Preparing Autistic Adults for the Workplace
“I get extremely frustrated when I go back and forth between the business world and the autism world because I am seeing too many kids getting locked into the label," Grandin says. "The parents do everything for them and they are not learning any life skills.”
2. Start volunteer and community jobs early.
“I am seeing college graduates who have never had gainful employment, and they do not have the skills to handle the workplace,” she says. “If I hadn’t gone to my aunt’s ranch I wouldn’t have gotten interested in the beef industry. Exposure is the key. Expose children and adults to a myriad of things so they can find out what they are interested in and good in.”
4. Young children with signs of autism must get early intervention.
“Start at age three for verbal and nonverbal children and it will lead to major improvements,” Grandin advises. ”The spectrum is wide; from Einstein and Bill Gates to somebody with severe challenges that require different services and needs.”
6. Help autistic teens learn to drive, even if they're scared at first.
“When it comes to learning how to drive it is going to take maybe three times for practice in totally safe places before he or she goes into traffic, but it can be done,” she says. ”It took me a lot of time driving on dirt roads, big fields, and empty parking lots. They need to learn how to drive to help foster independence.”
“I hear from parents who feel badly because the child or teen has no friends,” Grandin says. ”When I was a teenager and was bullied; I had friends with similar interests. We were all interested in riding horses and getting the animals ready for the horse show, so encourage these shared interests.”
8. Believe in your children and adult loved ones with autism.
Up Next:
Related: 10 Life-Changing Books About Autism Spectrum Disorder for Families and Communities
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Temple Grandin's Best Advice for Preparing Autistic Adults for the Workplace )
Also on site :