I enjoyed this book so much. As the mother of a daughter with aspergers and not knowing quite what to expect I hung on every word. Temple brought me into her world so beautifully. Even though no two people with autism are the same there are so many similarities. I took what I could use and still found interest in the things that didn't apply to my daughter. The world of autism has interested me since I was a child, Temple in her fun yet blunt way (so typical of aspergers!!) took me into her world. I devoured the book in a few hours. My entire family is now fighting over who gets to read the book next. Great book!!!

Anyone who has any contact with an autistic child should read this book. For everyone else, it is an education about this dreadful condition that has become a household word. Temple is one of those very rare people who was clearly certified as autistic, but has broken out of her cage well enough to communicate to the rest of us the inner feelings of an autistic person. Essentially, it is an autobiography detailing her hypersensitivity, temper outbursts, anxiety attacks and inability to function as a social being. Through the efforts of her mother, loving teachers, structured environments and her own doggedness, she has emerged well enough to become an acclaimed professional animal scientist.

With the recent success of the novel "The Curious Incedent of the Dog and the Night Time" - a novel written from an autistic's point of view - we should remember that this book, "Emergence," was the first autobiography written by an autistic. Quite literally, it was Temple Grandin, more than any other person, who brought autism into the spotlight and gave us the "insider's perspective."

Before I go on, it should be noted that anyone reading this will be reading the story of a quite high-functioning autistic. Sadly, the majority of those diagnosed with full-blown autism will be worse off than she (even if they can use language), and that, after having seen her live a few times, I question whether she would have fit the diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome (very mild autism) better than "autism."

That being said, this woman's life was obviously no walk in the park. Even if her autism is mild, this story is one of humungous triumph over towering obstacles. She recalls, for instance, how it was not until her elementary years that she was really able to use speech. Her middle school years are rushed over because, she says, they are simply too painful to recount. (She tells us that other students used to taunt her by calling her "tape recorder" because she would endlessly repeat phrases because she liked their sound. She tells us of her obsession, starting in high school, with walking through doors and her creation of a "squeeze chute" which would allow her to experience physical pressure against her skin in a way that would not overwhelm her senses.

Sound unconventional? Welcome to the world of autism. Autism, for those who don't know, is a developmental disorder that affects one's sensory intake (often, sounds, smells, and tactile sensation can be overwhelming), expressive abillty (having trouble verbalizing thoughts and feelings), and impairing social "instincs" (those unwritten rules "neurotypicals" take for granted. Grandin's story is one of learning to deal with, and adjust to, all three of these impairments enough to function in the world as a "normal" person, which is something that, sadly, many autistics can never quite do.

But Grandin is a firm believer that autism can be "cured" (the quotation marks are because I think she means "dealt with" or "adjusted to fit the world," rather than "cured." Towards that end, the introduction and epilogue of the book are deveoted to lessons on how to deal with autism which can be extrapolated from the book.

Another reviewer mentioned that this is a book that can be read by teenager and adult alike. This is one of its greatest assets. Autistics, when they use language, tend to use very literal and direct language (autistics have trouble with things like metaphor). This book is concise, to the point, written in very simple language, and would be easily aceesible to a teenage. As I teach teenagers, some with autism, I am just waiting for the chance to have some of my autistic and Asperger's kids read this book, because I know they will be able to draw much inspiration from it.

If you are at all concerned about autism, Asperger's syndrome, and how the autistic thinks, this is a must read. Grandin is candid about her failures and her sucesses. This is a book that will entertain, educate, and inspire you.

Good book if you are looking for a view on autism from someone who has had it.

I really liked the book. It offers great insights into the life of autistic children.

an illumination of the mind and world of an autistic person which gives the reader an insight into a different, yet constructive way of seeing and being in this world...and the amazing contributions that can be made

As the grandmother of a high functioning autistic child, I've learned some insight into how every day events affect my grandson. I'm anxious to read more of Temple's dealing with autism in her everyday life.

As the parent of a 5 yr old autistic child,
I read this book with great interest. It has
given me some insight as to what my child
MAY be experiencing (each autistic child is
unique). The author's experiences and trials
have given me ideas to consider as aides for
my daughter and confirmation about what I've
believed she needs in the way of structure.
The author is TRULY a remarkable person and
I am thankful to her for having the courage
and the thoughtfulness to share her experiences
with the public. I am also moved by the strength
and courage demonstrated by her mother through
the years; another remarkable woman.
I am excited to read the author's "Thinking
In Pictures" next!

this book is a must for anyone looking to understand the complex mind of autism.

it is more than a mere textbook. in addition to valuable information it also contains stories and first hand narratives.

i would consider it a must read for all physical and occupational therapists.

I am a teacher and respite care provider for children with special needs. Temple Grandin offers insight into the world of the children on the Autism spectrum. Reading about her experiences helps us better understand and treat the children we care for. I encourage anyone who interacts with children and adults on the Autism spectrum and those with sensory processing disorder to read this book and the many others written by Temple Grandin.

This book is a must read for parents and educators of autistic children. I am the parent of two autistic girls, and this book gave me inspiration and hope. Temple Grandin is an excellent example of how loving parents and educators can help people overcome their disabilities. I highly recommend this book!!!

By learning to cope with and overcome many aspects of her autism, Temple Grandin provides an amazing look into the thought patterns and struggles of her autism. One of the major ideas I took from this book is her recommendation to encourage your child to channel their fixations (on often very strange objects or subjects) in a positive way, as she channeled her obsession with cattle-handling equipment into a productive and meaningful career. Her career achievements also shine a light ahead for we parents who wonder about the future of our children with autistic spectrum disorders. My own son has a mild PDD-NOS diagnosis and is not nearly as severe as Grandin's case. However, her journey through autism can benefit families going through any disorder on the autism spectrum.

I had to read this book for my class called "Deconstructing Autism." It is written by a "recovered autistic" and so you learn many things about the mind of some people with autism. It definately helps you relate to the disorder and become more understanding.

There is no doubt that Temple Grandin has the mind of a scientist and engineer. Her writing style is informative, methodical, well sequenced and it is clear how she has been able to have the mental and cognitive organisation to go on to an inspiring, successful academic career as someone with a PhD mastering her special interest of cattle management. By stark contrast to Donna Williams' chaotic, fragmented and sensorily rich writing style of a clearly challenged cognition and mind, Temple has the style of sitting in a lecture with Mr Spock. The two backgrounds couldn't be more different. Temple was the child of highly academic able parents driven by love and caring in staunch pursuit of treatment, help and progress of their child. Donna at the other pole was born into equally highly uneducated and challenged parents in an environment of alcoholism, violence, neglect and threat. To read the works of these two people is like looking at autism through the eyes of Einstein on the one hand and Van Gogh on the other. Emergence Labelled Autistic was the first published autobiography of a person diagnosed with autism in the English language and came out over a decade before Williams' Nobody Nowhere became a bestseller in the mainstream publishing world. But it was Nobody Nowhere which brought autism out into the mainsteam and had the world find Temple's valueable book which was till then on the academic shelves only. Now both books are in languages all around the world and provide a kind of bookend perspective of the Autistic Spectrum from one extreme to the other, the scientific mind, and the artistic one.

This is a vivid and amazingly understandable account of autism from the inside, by a woman who used her intelligence and incredible determination to construct her own way out of it and learn to communicate with the world. She succeeded so well that she became a research biologist using her unique talents to deal with animals. It's fascinating both to experience her story and to see in a new light how all our minds work. It's also enlightening to anyone who needs to work with an autistic child or with persons with Asperger's syndrome, a milder form of autism.

Excellent book, very informative, definitely one to pass around to friends and family.

This autobiographical story of an autistic child who overcame huge obstacles to lead a useful life as an adult should be an inspiration to us lesser mortals. I found her description of her mother's heroic and ultimately successful efforts to help Temple overcome the isolation of this huge emotional and cognitive deficit (autism) incredibly moving. Her mother's long and thoughtful letters to Temple's psychiatrist give ample evidence of how much of her life she devoted to her oldest child. The importance of her mother is etched even more strongly by Temple's contrasting portrayal of her father as distant and given to fits of anger.
Many of is will notice little shards of autism (described in this book as a form of brain damage at birth) in our own development and realize how much difference a supportive parent can make. Hearing what it is like to be autistic from someone who actually lived it is an incredibly unique experience. The fact that Temple is now a functioning PhD who gives lectures in Europe as well as all around the US is ample testimony that some autistic children can have rich and rewarding adult lives.

Temple Grandin has become an inspiration to the autistic community, as someone who has become highly successful both despite and because of her autism. As someone raising an autistic child, this seemed to be a good book to read to help my son reach his full potential.

While it is certainly inspirational that someone with autism wrote this book, I'm afraid the prose is quite wooden and plodding, and the 150 page book seems a lot longer than that. Too often, long journal entries and letters are used in place of narrative, and not always to good effect. I suppose this isn't going to make me popular here, but this book can be tedious to read at times.

But it's worth the effort. Ms. Grandin provides insights into the autistic mind unfortunately very few can possibly provide, and it has helped me to understand what my son must be going through. A lot of facts and theories of autistic behavior are woven into the story to make it informative enough. Few autobiographies are published about average people, but certainly Temple Grandin is an extraordinary and inspirational figure, and simply reading about her life, however weakly it's presented, is rewarding. Clearly Ms. Grandin benefited from a determined mother and instructors and many health care professionals that were well ahead of their time in understanding her condition, and probably that is the most important message one gets from this book.

For anyone who knows someone with autism, I'd give it five stars. For someone with a more passing interest in the subject, the rating sinks to three stars.

Since I began working with individuals with autism, I have been interested in reading works by adults with autism. I believe books such as this one offer a valuable insight into the world of an individual with autism. One of the main ideas I got out of this book was the idea that many individuals with autism experience sensory input differently than other individuals. This is an idea that I have heard from physical and occupational therapists for years, but Temple Grandin explains it so vividly, it is hard to forget. She talks about her simultaneous need for deep pressure and her intense desire not to be held by anyone. She explains that while she needs the sensory input, she needs to be in control of it. I have seen this in my work with small children with autism. I have been taught by physical and occupational therapists several ways to provide this much needed stimulation (such as wrapping the child in a blanket and rolling a ball over them). However, I have noticed that this only sometimes has a claming effect. Other times it makes the child more anxious. Since reading this book, I have worked with one preschooler and taught her words such as "hard", "scratch", "rub", and "tight". She is quite verbal and learns words quickly, but she did not know how to ask for the type of stimulation she needed. Before, the only control she had was to say "peanut" (the shape of the ball we roll over her) or "stop". Now, she can control not only when she gets stimulation, but also the type of stimulation. This is why I believe this type of book is so important. Temple had a very frustrating childhood because she could not adequately express what was in her mind. Many of my students experience similar frustrations, but I believe I can get a better understanding of what is going on in their minds by reading books such as this one.

As the mother of a then two-year old with autistic spectrum disorder, I read this book looking for clues to my daughter's behaviors. I already knew of Temple Grandin's work from TV news magazine coverage.

I, like other parents of children with ASD, hope that my daughter will one day grow up to be like Temple Grandin -- much like parent's of "normal" children hope that their child will grow up to be the next Mozart or Einstein.

This book never told me "why" Temple feels the way she does. But it did, in a very readable style, tell me "what" she feels - or does not feel. It gave me an insight into my own child's cravings for deep pressure and other sensory input.

The most important thing that I gained from this book was the understanding of the power that parents can and do have over the educational process for their children. The work of Temple's mother was alluded to in this book, but it is obvious that her mother was a woman who bucked the conventions of the time (the 1950's) and sought inclusive education for her daughter.

I wonder if Temple will ever realize how very special her mother is, and what a wonderful gift she has given her daughter.

I thought this book was amazing ,the only insight into autism from someone who knows.My son has just been diagnoised at age 2 and this book gives you hope. If he grows up to be half the person Temple has become I will be so pleased.I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK to anyone dealing with autism.

If this were the only book that Temple Grandin had written about autism, it would be well worth reading. However, her more recent work "Thinking in Pictures" is less a sequel than a new (and better) version of the same book. This might be worthwhile for someone who has already read that book and would like some more detail on some of the topics covered there.

There are not enough words or good enough words to describe this book, or the person who wrote this book. I have been aware of the presence of Temple Grandin for some years now. I have read about her in Oliver Sack's books. I have seen journalistic shows concerning her on television. I have known that she is considered autistic (been diagnosed as that)and that she had a Ph.D. and works with animals, primarily livestock. All of this information predisposed me to be interested in her life, and ready to admire her for everything that she has accomplished.

However, it was not until my own nephew was diagnosed as having a developmental delay problem of his own, Asperger's, that I actually sought out more information about Temple Grandin and autism. In studying neuroscience, we just barely scratched the surface of this disability, and I remember thinking that this was an area of great dissent and of great need. Above all, there is an obvious need to hear from those who have autism. There are many books out there by parents, by physicians and scientists, by educators and psychiatrists. But there are few books by those who live the life of someone with autism. As a deaf person I know that those who would understand what it is like to be deaf in a hearing world cannot possibly imagine the problems, the obstacles, and even the joys which come with my differences. So I am also aware that I cannot understand other disabilities and differences unless they are told to me by someone who has actually been through it themselves.

Grandin does a great service to those with autism and those who have loved ones with autism or developmental delay disabilities. By allowing us access into her world, and explaining why she 'behaved' certain ways in certain circumstances, it allows others to comprehend the absolutely mind-boggling over-stimulation that these persons are exposed to. Not only does it aid in understanding and allow us to reserve judgement (rather than condemning these children as uncontrollable), it may help those who are exploring the neuroscience accounting for autism as well as lead to the development of educational and behavioral methodologies which can assist these children to meet their potentials and fulfill their lives. It also helps all of us to realize that differences do not necessarily have to be negative.

Temple Grandin and her mother are examples of what can be accomplished through love and education. Grandin was helped on her path by her mother and good teachers, but she also helped herself by educating herself on all possible fronts as to why she reacted and behaved (and how to control those reactions and behaviors). I can only begin to imagine the difficulties that both she and her mother faced in overcoming her problems, and making the most of her abilities. This book is necessary reading for all parents of children with these disabilities, for those who work with them in education and in psychiatry. I have now added Ms. Grandin to my list of people I admire, up there with Lincoln, Helen Keller, and Albert Schweitzer. She is an inspiration to us all of what can be done with hard work and perseverance. As she stated "Children, including the autistics, are not static"...all children and all people can always be taught and can achieve more. It is only the prejudices of others that are allowed to dictate what any child can or cannot accomplish.
Karen Sadler,
Science Education,
University of Pittsburgh

I wish I'd found this highly readable book while raising my son! He was variously diagnosed 25 years ago with "minimal brain dysfunction and learning disability" (by a psychiatric hospital) and ADD with hyperactivity--now ADHD, of course--{by the schools). Those were as good a diagnoses as you could get at the time, accurate enough to give us something to work with (in the limited way then possible). Nevertheless, it was up to us to "intuit" what he was experiencing internally and try to respond appropriately. Ms. Hardin's descriptions of her ownchildhood experiencing rang so many bells! I saw many of my son's characteristics and responses in her book; it would have helped me gain a better handle on what he was experiencing and what approaches might help, even if the particular disorder was somewhat different. Not having that information could lead to truly miserable results. It convinced me that there is close relationship between various of the brain-related disorders and that the differences may only between their particular expressions--where within an overall complex problems show up most. This fits with results of more recent studies of these disorders and the brain in general.

This book was really interesting and fascinating. It helped to see autism from a different perspective. I was so enthralled with the book I finished it in 3 hours! This is a must read for anyone working with children with autism or for families who have children with autism.

this book gave me a lot of insight into Autism and having just written my own book of my grandson "Marty" who is autistic i knew quite a bit but the book did explain it more clearer. when i do readings of my book i can now retain more about autism to explain after reading the book.

As the mother of an active, imaginative son recently diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, I was fascinated with the insights Dr. Grandin was able to give into her early childhood and teen years. Many of the anecdotes she shares are bang on what we are going through. This is especially helpful in dealing with my son's imagination and enjoying his perspective. This should be required reading for parents of a child with a diagnosis in the Autistic spectrum.

I doubted how a person who had been diagnosed with Autism could relate her experiences in a meaningful way. However, Temple provides incredible insight into her past, with the verbage and feelings only a first-person account could provide. Not only does she give a detailed account of her own experiences, but she offers a variety of helpful therapies for other people with Autism. This is the most realistic account of Autism that I have ever read, and she provides both clinical information and well as her personal opinions about Autism.

Temple Grandin might be the most famous autistic person in the world, and this book, her autobiography, at 180 simply-written pages, can be read by children and adults. It tends to be aimed more at children and teenagers, though. It details her problems growing up, misunderstood by many (but, happily, understood by some of the most important influences in her life). Like most autistic children, she was desperate for human contact but unable to tolerate it. She had a terrible temper, oftentimes couldn't communicate, and was continually overwhelmed by her environment. Yet she was exceptionally intelligent and creative. Instead of ending up locked in her own internal world, as autistic children often are, she was able to overcome many of her difficulties and gain a Ph.d. Her frightening journey is well worth reading.

I read this book as apart of a psychology book and it was and interesting experience. It taught me more about autism and how wiht hard work and dedication someone could help themself with this syndrome.

This book was unbelievable. Her acccounts of her childhood were interesting and I could not believe how much detail she remembered as a child. A must read for anyone who is interested in autism or knows someone with autism.

I read this very informative book and was amazed that many people with autism can lead productive lives,Ms.Temple Grandin is a prime example!

During the first year after my son's diagnosis, I read thirty-four books on autism (I catagorized them according to personal account, family account, clinical study, education & intervention method). Four years later, this one stills ranks among the best in terms of personal accounts & has helped immensely in learning to understand my son, his behavior & how to get through to him so he'll understand me. An excellent account for parents who desire insight on what their children with autism are experiencing.

I wish I could say that this inspiring and idyosyncratic little book (instead of the wretched "The Secret of Susan" by insipid old Ann M. Martin back in 3rd grade,) was the start of my lifelong fascination with autism. I can't -- alas! -- but I CAN say that it is immensely helpful in understanding the causes of, the "logic" behind autistic behavior, AND it's a great story. Read it, for crying out loud!

After working with 2 autistic girls, one of which wanted to be like Temple, I had to read her books, partly so I could understand and partly out of curiosity. After reading Emergence, it has changed my understanding and helped me to make an impact on the lives of atleast 2 girls. Thank you Temple.

The first ever autobiography written by someone with autism, and still one of the best.