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A careful use of discipline is the heart of several recent approaches. Adopting the principles of reinforcement therapy (TIME, July 11), psychologists at the U.C.L.A. Neuropsychiatric Institute put autistic children through a demanding series of exercises. The therapist waits for them to perform a small act as a normal child would, then quickly rewards them with praise and a few bits of cereal or an M & M candy. If they revert to autistic behavior, he promptly says "No," and may even strike them. After literally hundreds of repetitions, the rewardable behavior begins to replace autistic distraction, and the children can be stimulated by praise alone.
No Cure. Similar ideas are also being put to use in a few of the schools that attempt to treat autistics along with other problem children. Carl Fenichel of Brooklyn's League School for Seriously Disturbed Children told the National Society meeting that he has had some success by firmly distracting autistic children from their tantrums and insisting they practice simple mechanical tasks such as holding a pencil or using an egg beater. "Disorganized children need someone to organize their world for them," he says. "They fear their own loss of control and seek protection against their own impulsive drives; they need teachers who know how to limit as well as accept them."
None of these methods can "cure" autism, the researchers warn. The best that therapy can do now is abate the worst symptoms, allowing children to remain at home with their parents and attend special schools that serve the braindamaged, the retarded, and children with other mental conditions that are more amenable to treatment than autism. The parents of autistics, who make up most of the N.S.A.C.'s 700 members, are lobbying to force all states to provide this kind of care through the public schools. So widespread is the feeling that children with severe mental illness can never be helped, says N.S.A.C. Legislative Chairman Herman Preiser, that only six states make it mandatory to provide any education for them at all.
* From the Greek word for self.