Spectrum; 6; Child Psychiatry: Autism's Lonely Children
- Series
- Spectrum
- Episode Number
- 6
- Contributing Organization
- Thirteen WNET (New York, New York)
- Library of Congress (Washington, District of Columbia)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/75-46d258dt
- NOLA Code
- SCTM
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- Description
- Episode Description
- The sixth episode includes two "articles." The first deals with research on the reasoning ability of lower forms of animals, and the second with autistic children, part of a pilot study at U.C.L.A.
- Series Description
- Spectrum consists of 101-142 half-hour episodes produced in 1964-1969.
- Description
- Spectrums sixth program turns to the problem of the autistic child, now the subject of a pilot study under the direction of Dr. Frank Hewett of the Neuropsychiatric School at UCLA. For reasons no one understands, Hewett explains, the autistic child lives in a self-contained world, totally cut off from the world of other people. Through the learning box, a device which he has developed, Hewett is attempting to teach a group of autistic children to talk and to identify objects for the first time. Hewett hopes his study may help to bridge the terrible gap between the autistic child and the rest of the world. Spectrums viewers meet Dr. Hewetts prize patient, Peter, aged 4.5, blond, blue-eyed, who looks like a typical Tom Sawyer except for his strange blank stare. Hewett demonstrates how his learning box, which incorporates a deliberate system of reward and punishment, has taught Peter twelve or thirteen words in the past eight months. A program highlight records the first meeting in eight months between Peter and his parents. Hewett tries to transfer to the parents the tools through which he has been able to evoke responses from Peter. Hewett insists that it would be premature to draw more than tentative conclusions as ot the effectiveness of his learning box. Where he has had a limited success with Peter, his attempts to teach four-year-old Marty, one of two autistic twin brothers, have been futile. So far, Marty has only learned to say be-beep.
- Broadcast Date
- 1964-12-27
- Asset type
- Episode
- Genres
- Magazine
- Topics
- Science
- Psychology
- Media type
- Moving Image
- Duration
- 00:29:29
- Credits
-
-
Guest: Tsia, Loh Seng
Guest: Hewett, Frank
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
-
Thirteen - New York Public Media (WNET)
Identifier: wnet_aacip_2678 (WNET Archive)
Format: 16mm film
Duration: 00:29:00?
-
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2339836-1 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 16mm film
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: B&W
-
Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive
Identifier: [request film based on title] (Indiana University)
Format: 16mm film
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- Citations
- Chicago: “Spectrum; 6; Child Psychiatry: Autism's Lonely Children,” 1964-12-27, Thirteen WNET, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed October 28, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-75-46d258dt.
- MLA: “Spectrum; 6; Child Psychiatry: Autism's Lonely Children.” 1964-12-27. Thirteen WNET, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. October 28, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-75-46d258dt>.
- APA: Spectrum; 6; Child Psychiatry: Autism's Lonely Children. Boston, MA: Thirteen WNET, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-75-46d258dt