Summary: Do people with autism experience love, romantic attraction, and heartbreak the same way non-autistic people feel those emotions? This ABC News program profiles Paul DeSavino, a 36-year-old man living with the disorder who says he is amorously drawn to a female acquaintance. Interviews with Paul, his mother, and autism expert Dr. Peter Gerhardt shed light on the complexities of the subject. An...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Dekel Shekarzi, a 21-year-old who defines himself as an actor, a poet, a dancer, and a romantic in love with love itself, is defined by many others not by who he is, but by what he was born with: Down's syndrome. This engaging documentary follows Dekel in his everyday life, which is anything but "everyday. For him, faith, hope, and willpower have fused together to fuel his dreams. Film of Dekel...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Autism, a complex developmental disability, is generally believed to be a genetic disorder. But Dr. William Walsh, a senior scientist at the Pfeiffer Institute, believes he has isolated a biochemical cause, based on analysis of blood, urine, and hair samples from 503 autistic children. His pioneering research attributes autism to the inability of a protein-metallothionein-to balance the body's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Research has shown that some children with autism who are enrolled in a curriculum of applied behavioral analysis at a young enough age can be mainstreamed right into the public school system. This ABC News program profiles two children with autism who receive this intensive form of therapy and discusses the mixed results of it. Although the degree of improvement attributable to ABA varies from...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Children with autism turn into adults with autism: an obvious fact, but one that remains inadequately addressed by society. Through the uplifting stories of Paul deSavino and Jamie Hoppe, two adults with autism who enjoy the support of their parents, life coaches, and others dedicated to their well-being, this ABC News program looks at America's overall unpreparedness in helping such adults...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: What is it like for people with autism, living among others yet always, in a sense, living alone? And how do their parents cope, as they care for them? Built around several case studies, this program distinguishes between high- and low-functioning autism; illustrates structural and functional differences between autistic and non-autistic brains; considers genetics, neurological diseases, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: To talk with 10-year-old Dillon Kelley, it is not readily apparent that he has a form of mental retardation. But that does not stop his 4th-grade classmates, who discern that he is unlike them without understanding why, from teasing and shunning him. In this program, ABC News anchor Ted Koppel compassionately presents Dillon's story as an opportunity to better understand the genetic disorder...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Einstein, Beethoven, Mozart, Van Gogh: all displayed symptoms of Asperger's syndrome. But not every person with Asperger's is a genius. This program follows a self-described eccentric who, after discovering he matches up with the general Asperger's profile, sets out on a quest to learn all he can about the disorder-and whether he truly does have it. Along the way, he speaks with author Michael...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: This is the story of an eight-year-old boy with Down syndrome who was part of a battle over "inclusion," the practice of placing mentally or physically challenged students in regular classrooms. Teachers felt inadequately trained; teachers and parents asked whether "inclusion" was in the best interests of all students-those with and those without disabilities; and the future of special...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: F.A.T.-frustration, anxiety, tension-are three all-too-familiar feelings for children with learning disabilities and their families. In this program, Richard D. Lavoie, creator of the original F.A.T. City Workshop, reviews the history and philosophy of that project, the major trends and issues in the field of learning disabilities since the late 1980s, and the challenges ahead for educators and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Secluded in upstate New York, a facility known as Camp Tic-a-Palooza welcomes young people with Tourette Syndrome. This ABC News program profiles several camp attendees, focusing on the challenges, triumphs, and emotional impact of living with TS. Ten-year-old Sid's symptoms include frequently sticking out his middle finger. Amanda displays a menagerie of vocal tics, often hissing, barking, or...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: In this classic program, internationally known learning disabilities expert Richard D. Lavoie leads a group of educators, psychologists, parents, and children through a series of exercises that vividly illustrate the daily classroom reality of LD students, an experience fraught with F.A.T.: frustration, anxiety, and tension. After the workshop is done, participants discuss strategies for...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Bridget, 15, cannot go near her own parents because she fears they are somehow "contaminated." Rocco, 9, dissolves into tears whenever he tries to leave for school-consumed by anxiety over what could happen once he steps outside. Michelle, 13, spends hours in the shower. These children, along with about one million others, have OCD. This edition of Primetime tracks the treatment of Bridget,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: Without remorse or empathy, psychopaths control, even kill, others for personal profit. But every psychopath starts out as a child. Using interviews with forensic psychologists, child psychiatrists, and a 17-year-old named Jonathan who is serving a sentence for first-degree murder, this powerful film elucidates the factors that can transform children into psychopaths. Dr. Elliott Barker,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Reudiger Gamm performs complex arithmetic instantly and without help-his brain stores numbers like a calculator. Orlando Sorrel remembers exactly what he was doing on any date, at any hour, and can accurately predict the day of the week thousands of years in the future. Kim Peek-the original "Rain Man"-has read 12,000 books and hasn't forgotten a single word. What lies behind these astonishing...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: Nick van Bloss possesses astonishing musical talent. He is also afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome. As this program illustrates, the two are often linked, leading those born with the disorder to view it as both a curse and a gift. Nick's journey-taking him from the humiliating loss of his career as a concert pianist toward a more self-assured acceptance of his condition-is not only inspiring;...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: David Vandenbrink seems like a normal, bright, articulate 21-year-old man. There is little to suggest, on the surface, that while in his mother's womb he suffered permanent brain damage. David suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome or FAS, a condition that went undiagnosed for the first eighteen years of his life, causing confusion, anger, and pain for him and his adoptive family. The damage from...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: This program from The Doctor Is In shows how a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) is made and what treatments are working. The program follows children at home and school, both on and off medication. An innovative private school specializing in alternative education for children with ADD is profiled, and the program explains how best to structure school and home environments....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: Mute until the age of nine, Stephen Wiltshire learned to communicate through realistic, richly detailed drawings. Alonzo Clemens sculpts clay animal figures with great precision, even though he can barely form a sentence. Matt Savage faced extraordinary developmental problems as a child but has become a teen prodigy among jazz musicians. What is the relationship between creativity and autistic...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: John Davidson, first diagnosed with Tourette syndrome as a youth, is now in his mid-40s. He looks back on the preceding decades with a mixture of sadness about his lack of a life partner and pride at what he has been able to accomplish. Greg Storey, whose tics emerged in 2001, is now a teenager with most of his life ahead of him. To be sure, his future holds numerous challenges, but Greg seems...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
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Summary: Filmed successively in 1978, 1988, and 1997, this award-winning program tracks Lily, a person with Down syndrome, from childhood into adulthood. 'Lily: A Story about a Girl Like Me' introduces Lily at age 10 and in third grade, where, as a pioneer for mainstreaming, she is filmed coming to terms with both academic and social pressure. 'Lily: A Sequel' catches up with Lily at 20, with scenes of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1997
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Summary: Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder need not miss out on crucial educational opportunities. This program describes new medical strategies designed specifically for parents struggling to keep ADHD from controlling their households and limiting the prospects and happiness of their children. It also focuses on the challenges of parents who, in addition to their children, are...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: In its strictest sense, the term art brut refers to art created outside the boundaries of official culture and often focuses on the work of people who live in mental institutions. This program focuses on the art of Josef "Pepi" Hofer and several other artists with mental retardation and similar disabilities as it captures them in workshops and at a showing and award ceremony at The House of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2007
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Summary: It is the size of the frontal cortex that helps separate the human brain from that of other animals. This part allows humans to communicate, infer meaning, and imagine, all basic to the socialization process. But there is a group of people, primarily males, who lack a small piece of this frontal cortex and who suffer from a mild form of autism. Identified as Asperger's syndrome in 1940, this...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006