Nov. 1 presentation by animal behavior and welfare expert Temple Grandin to benefit SU’s Facilitated Communication Institute

Nov. 1 presentation by animal behavior and welfare expert Temple Grandin to benefit SU’s Facilitated Communication InstituteOctober 09, 2008Patrick Farrellpmfarrel@syr.edu

Nationally known animal behavior and welfare expert Temple Grandin will appear at this year’s Syracuse Invitational Sporthorse Tournament to benefit Syracuse University’s Facilitated Communication Institute (FCI). Grandin will give two presentations at the Syracuse Oncenter on Saturday, Nov. 1. The first, from 9-10 a.m., is titled “Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior”; the second, “Thinking in Pictures and Other Reports from My Life with Autism,” takes place from 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Tickets are required for each presentation.

Grandin, associate professor of animal science at Colorado State University, is considered by some to be the most accomplished and well-known adult with autism in the world. She has translated her experiences with autism into improvements in animal handling and is best known for her work on the design of livestock handling facilities-half the cattle in North America are handled in systems she has designed. Grandin has been featured on such network television programs as ABC’s “Primetime Live” and “20/20,” and in Time, People, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, and The New York Times.

“I think in pictures,” Grandin writes. “Words are like a second language to me. I translate both spoken and written words into full-color movies, complete with sound …. Language-based thinkers often find this phenomenon difficult to understand, but in my job as an equipment designer for the livestock industry, visual thinking is a tremendous advantage.”

Grandin’s appearance at the Oncenter is sponsored by 54Freedom and supported by EQUUS Magazine, the Cazenovia College Human Services Club and the Facilitated Communication Institute at Syracuse University. Tickets ($15) are on sale now and can be purchased at Syracuse-area NAPA locations. One dollar from each ticket is designated for the benefit of autism education and research by the Facilitated Communication Institute (http://inclusioninstitutes.org/).

For more information about the Grandin presentations and the Syracuse Invitational Sporthorse Tournament, visit http://syracuseinvitational.com or e-mail kbump@naeaa.com.