The documentary work of British-American journalist Louis Theroux.

This Episode S01E01
In America nearly one child in a hundred is diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder - a brain disorder characterised by an inability to socialise and communicate.

Louis travels to DLC Warren in New Jersey, one of the most innovative autism schools of its kind, to find out how specialised intervention can help both the children and the families who care for them.

He meets Joey, whose mother Carol is finding it increasingly hard to cope with some of the more challenging aspects of his disorder. In between the ever more explosive tantrums, Louis discovers a cheeky and charming 13-year-old, but there are tough decisions ahead about his future in the family home.

Nicky is 19. After making good progress at DLC Warren he is about to leave, but the prospect of change leads to increasing anxiety and erratic behaviour. Surrounded by a loving family who say they wouldn't have him any other way, he shows Louis his novel Dragonula and invites him to share his first day at his new school.

Twenty-year-old Brian is severely autistic and his behaviour - setting fire to the house and attacking his mother - has led to the difficult decision of placing him in residential care. Louis meets a mother whose love for her son has been tested to its limits and finds out how the school is preparing
him for an adult life.



This Episode S01E02
As one of the big retirement destinations for middle class Americans, Phoenix Arizona has also become a capital of dementia care. Louis visits the city in order to spend time in state-of-the-art care home Beatitudes and with home-based carers, whose love is tested by a condition that steadily erodes the personality and character of their partners.

At Beatitudes Louis meets Gary, a 69-year-old patient who thinks he is serving in the military and that it is his job to check the state of everyone's teeth. Louis submits to a dental check-up, is introduced to two of Gary's new resident girlfriends and spends time with Gary's wife of 20 years, Carla – a woman whom Gary robustly denies ever having married.

In a suburban Phoenix bungalow Louis agrees to become carer-for-a-day to Nancy, a formerNew York model with a personality to match. He finds a woman who can no longer remember her way through a complete sentence, but also a husband who finds much to love in the glimpses of personality that still sparkle through the dementia.

biologic skrev:citalol: Förenklat sett så är AS bara autism utan begåvningshandikapp. Men det finns grader av allt...