A documentary series from the 1970s about children with Asperger Syndrome

[Arran]

Here's a difficult one...

Some time in the late 1970s there was a documentary series consisting of 5 or 6 episodes about children who were considered average or above average academic ability, but had unusual behavioural traits that couldn't be explained using existing psychology. In more recent times they would have been identified as having Asperger syndrome. Each programme featured a different child and included scenes of them doing activities and interviews with them and their parents. They all had difficulties at school but were refused help or support because they were considered average or above average academic ability, so did not qualify for SEN.

The only other information I have is that it was more likely to be an ITV production rather than a BBC production. It was not a success and the producers received much criticism from the public at the time including accusations of fraudulent behaviour. It's possible that the series was cut short as a result and there are unbroadcast episodes.

An enquiry with the National Autistic Society has turned up nothing. Take into account that people with Asperger syndrome would not have met most of the criteria set by the NAS for a diagnosis of autism back in the 1970s and 80s. Therefore the programme was almost certainly outside of the area of interest of the NAS at the time of broadcast.

An enquiry with the ITV archives also turns up nothing. It's possible that the programme was wiped (as a result of controversies) some time afterwards, or it could have been a Southern or Westward production - most of their programmes aren't in the ITV archives.

There doesn't appear to be anything on BBC Genome that matches.

It's not an Open University programme.

Nothing on YouTube.

Does anybody recognise this programme?

[George 1978]

I am almost certain that Asperger Syndrome in itself, (outside the actual scope of autism), wasn't really documented on TV before the 1990s - there were documentaries, mostly on BBC 2 which were limited to series like Horizon, Man Alive and Open University that used to cover classic autism in the latter 1960s and 1970s, and sadly, the condition was stereotyped in those days as if those concerned needed to be "locked away for their own safety" or something. Thank goodness that we have moved on from then. The conservative views from society, (which even included back then, professors, paediatricians, consultants and the like) as to how to treat those diagnosed can be rather shocking if one looks back to them now.

I was diagnosed myself in the mid 1990s, just a year or two after the QED documentary in April 1995 which I have always assumed was the first "official" documentary about Asperger Syndrome to be seen on British television. I have always assumed that no documentary about Asperger Syndrome (outside autism) had been made prior to 1995, although it was before my own diagnosis, I could be wrong about that.

As you say that it was not Open University programme - a BBC programme might assume a science or medical series such as Horizon or Man Alive, or a late Sunday evening programme like Heart of the Matter or Everyman which started in 1977. If it was on ITV, a World in Action, This Week/TV Eye or a Tuesday evening post-News at Ten documentary? Bear in mind, it could have been made by an ITV company no longer in existence.

[Arran]

I'm working on very limited third hand information...

Other information I have is that it was most likely to be a Southern or an LWT production - possibly Anglia - if it was an ITV programme. All of the children featured in the programme were white, appeared to be middle class, and none of them had a strong regional accent. There may only have been one episode featuring a girl.

I asked about the time of the day it was broadcast. The reply was uncertain but it could have been Sunday morning when all sorts of oddball programmes were shown on TV back in the 1970s and 80s. It didn't appear to be a schools programme, but instead aimed at parents. Plenty of references were made to schools but no video footage of schools or interviews with teachers seemed to appear in the series.

As a sideline. My mother tells me that primary schools could be very opaque back in the 1970s. Parents often had very limited knowledge about what their children were learning and how it was assessed. It was common practice to deny that dyslexia existed and that it was a middle class excuse for poor performance. It was also a time when large numbers of children were subject to all sorts of weird, and not so wonderful, educational strategies, most of which were later discredited. Sometimes teachers got things wrong (like left to right calculations !!!) and children had to 'unlearn' things when they went to secondary school.

[George 1978]

The fact that LWT could have made the programme would obviously make me think that it was only shown at a weekend, and Southern and Anglia both made more networked programmes that were on the air at weekends rather than weekdays. Could the programme be networked, or just shown in any of those regions? Were you living in any of those regions at the time?

From the outset, it does sound like a post-watershed transmission - documentaries about autism are not usually shown pre-watershed unless in an educational, Open University-alike transmission or as repeats. On the other hand, I believe that BBC 1 mostly had minority programming on Sunday mornings - learning Spanish or German, or programmes for the deaf, etc. On ITV, different regions shown different programme for the same programme at different times - for example, before or after Morning Worship which was networked except in Scotland unless the Sunday service came from STV or Grampian. Apart from that, ITV stations used to show programmes on gardening, DIY and the odd cartoon series.

I know that Link, which was a Sunday morning series from ATV and Central about disability, ran for many years, and could have covered the subject of autism? That series mostly ran in the 1980s and 1990s, however.

[Arran]

The person who watched this programme lived in Sussex at the time, so it was probably Southern TV region although Thames / LWT could be clearly received in the north of the county. I'm tempted to say that if it was an LWT production it was networked whereas if it was a Southern production it could have only been shown in the region. There were complaints about the programme - complete with ridiculing the children and accusations of fraudulent behaviour - in local newspapers. This could hint that the programme wasn't networked.

Children with (undiagnosed) Asperger syndrome in the 1970s would not have met the criteria for autism as they rarely had any notable speech and language delays, and those featured in the programme were considered average or above average academic ability. They would also not have been considered disabled by the standards of the time, so they would have been outside of the scope of any series featuring disabled people. Therefore the only way to give them publicity on TV would be to create a separate programme for them.

It has intrigued me why Asperger syndrome was not co-discovered in the post war decades, as opposed to only becoming mainstream knowledge following the translation of Hans Asperger's research papers into English by Uta Frith. Was there some inertia in British (and other western?) society that acted as an inhibiting force to research and investigation from the grassroots, and ultimately resulted in such harsh criticism of the programme by members of the public? The person who mentioned the programme to me had scoured educational journals going back to the 1960s for any articles about mysterious behavioural traits of children that could not be explained by psychologists at the time, but would now be almost certainly recognised as being Asperger syndrome, and couldn't find any. It's fairly common knowledge that teachers viewed (undiagnosed) Asperger syndrome as nothing but bad behaviour even this side of 2000, rather than made any efforts to investigate these children or even publicise their unusual behavioural traits.

[George 1978]

I would say that Southern was his local ITV station if he lived in Sussex - Southern did get some programmes on the network but I believe that they did not really do documentaries nationally in a similar vein as World in Action or This Week, which is the kind of programme which would probably deal with such a subject. Indeed, looking at off-air programmes on YouTube and TV Ark from Southern, they were mostly entertainment programmes (Worzel Gummidge, How, Take A Letter, Mr Jones, etc) from its final year on air (1981), or local stuff like Day by Day.

I do think that Asperger Syndrome was not understood enough back then, or not even heard enough of outside medical circles. If I had been 20 years older and got a diagnosis in, let's say, the mid 1970s rather than the mid 1990s at the same age, perhaps things might have been different in a negative way? I frequently search the Times archive for old TV listings in order to write about them, (just as I did with the BBC Genome until they changed it relatively recently), and on TV listings from 1964 onwards, I saw mentions of autism documentaries, mostly on the newly opened BBC 2 in Horizon-style documentary programmes, and the odd programme on Radio 4, including appeals for autism charities (back in the day when a lot of them thought that only children would have autism and that it did not continue into adulthood). Even the main charity was called something like: "the Society for Autistic Children" back then, and they were founded by a group of London-based parents of children with autism back in January 1962 - they did have publicity in 2002 for their 40th anniversary, but not their 50th in 2012. It was in the 1970s when they realised that autism was indeed a lifelong condition.

Autism was "discovered" in around 1943 by Leo Kanner, and Asperger Syndrome a few years later by Hans Asperger. I think the problem was that people knew very little about it in order to deal with it. When it comes to autism being portrayed in drama, for example, as early as December 1975 (Monday 8th December to be precise), ATV did an hour-long 9.00 pm drama about autism starring a teenaged Pauline Quirke of all people as the protagonist! This has made me think whether it was a documentary and not a drama like that was, but it seems to be the right era almost. Jenny Can't Work Any Faster, it was called, and Quirke was Jenny in the programme.

My own school days were few and far-fetched, but that was before I was diagnosed - teachers, doctors and even the odd educational psychologist were left scratching their heads as to why I was so different to my peer group. And then I was diagnosed, and all the pieces came into place, or so I assumed...

[Arran]

Southern definitely produced factual programmes but I think most of them were only shown in their region and not networked.

Research into psychology can be accomplished from either a top down or a bottom up approach. The top down approach is research carried out by academic psychologists. The bottom up approach is research resulting from findings by parents, teachers etc. who are contact with the individuals on a day to day basis. Asperger syndrome became known about in Britain via a top down approach resulting from the work of Lorna Wing and Uta Frith, whereas it was discovered by Hans Asperger using more of a bottom up approach resulting from his work with children with the condition.

I suspect that the documentary series was more of a bottom up approach commissioned by a TV company employee who had a child or close relative with undiagnosed Asperger syndrome. It strikes me as being a low budget ITV production rather than something from the BBC science department, although if it was produced in the 1980s it would more likely to be an independent production for C4.

If this was the case then it raises the question how on earth they managed to find other individuals with the condition to create a series. I make a guess that they contacted a psychologist of a child with undiagnosed Asperger syndrome who then contacted parents of other children with similar behavioural traits who were his clients.

It's important not to think too strongly down the avenue of autism when discussing a programme like this. Children with (undiagnosed) Asperger syndrome would not have met the criteria for classic or Kanner autism even in 1990, so they would have been considered by the NAS as outside of their remit. TV companies in the 1970s did have people with a fairly good idea of what classic or Kanner autism is, so a programme like this would probably have not mentioned autism unless the child had taken a diagnosis and autism was ruled out. To the best of my knowledge, there was no mention of Lorna Wing or the Maudsley Hospital in the series.

[Arran]

My own school days were few and far-fetched, but that was before I was diagnosed - teachers, doctors and even the odd educational psychologist were left scratching their heads as to why I was so different to my peer group. And then I was diagnosed, and all the pieces came into place, or so I assumed...

I have controversial and deeply unpopular views that there is a strong possibility Asperger syndrome results from a child's upbringing rather than their genetics. I'm doubtful that traditional or Kanner autism is a result of upbringing. The refrigerator mother theory was discredited a long time ago, but I suspect fetal heavy metal poisoning (in most cases mercury from amalgam fillings in mothers) could be the cause.

You mentioned your upbringing in another topic where I concluded that your parents were old fashioned, out of date, out of touch, and narrow minded individuals with no real vision for the future. It is possible for a person to be socially deprived even if they are not materially deprived. Like having parents who are the two most boring people alive on the planet who synchronise their work shifts so that one is always at home in order to prevent their children from holding house parties whilst their classmates have the opportunity to do so!

I get the impression that your situation is more complicated by attending a primary school with a high proportion of students of foreign origin with different cultural values and different family and community structures. Most research into Asperger syndrome (and indeed psychology in general) assumes white British children attending schools with only other white British children. They say that racism cuts both ways, so white minority children can be marginalised and thought of as being English honkys by their classmates. This marginalisation almost certainly impacts on their social development.

The NAS denies this but Asperger syndrome in Britain seems to be much more prevalent amongst white British children than other races. I can't honestly recall any Pakistani children at my primary school having Asperger traits. This may be a result of a more gregarious culture with larger families, extended families, stronger community relations than the more atomised and individualistic white British culture. I have also wondered if religion has any impact on the situation.

[Richard1978]

One son of friends of my Kenyan / Ugandan wife is autistic, severe enough to need round the clock supervision.

[Arran]

One son of friends of my Kenyan / Ugandan wife is autistic, severe enough to need round the clock supervision.

This looks more like traditional autism rather than Asperger syndrome. People with Asperger syndrome very rarely need round the clock supervision, unless they are also a pyromaniac or an obsessive computer hacker etc.

[George 1978]

I get the impression that your situation is more complicated by attending a primary school with a high proportion of students of foreign origin with different cultural values and different family and community structures. Most research into Asperger syndrome (and indeed psychology in general) assumes white British children attending schools with only other white British children. They say that racism cuts both ways, so white minority children can be marginalised and thought of as being English honkys by their classmates. This marginalisation almost certainly impacts on their social development.

I did attend inner-city area schools which did have a reasonable ethnic population. Prior to my nephew being diagnosed with autism a couple of years before my Asperger Syndrome diagnosis, I would easily say that I would have said back then that I had never heard of autism, probably by virtue that it had not affected any members of my family up to that point.

[George 1978]

You mentioned your upbringing in another topic where I concluded that your parents were old fashioned, out of date, out of touch, and narrow minded individuals with no real vision for the future. It is possible for a person to be socially deprived even if they are not materially deprived. Like having parents who are the two most boring people alive on the planet who synchronise their work shifts so that one is always at home in order to prevent their children from holding house parties whilst their classmates have the opportunity to do so!

You can't choose your own parents, even if someone is adopted. My parents were of the old school - because of my father's age, people used to think that he was my grandfather for example. It was embarrassing, but it was "normal" to me as I had never known anything else like it personally.

[Arran]

I did attend inner-city area schools which did have a reasonable ethnic population. Prior to my nephew being diagnosed with autism a couple of years before my Asperger Syndrome diagnosis, I would easily say that I would have said back then that I had never heard of autism, probably by virtue that it had not affected any members of my family up to that point.

That muddies the water when making comparisons to a peer group who have a different heritage, community, culture, and social values. To the best of my knowledge, very little research into Asperger syndrome has been carried out into children of foreign origin with different cultural values and different family and community structures, and also to white British children who attend schools where they are clearly a small minority.

I attended an urban primary school with a high proportion of mostly Pakistani Muslim children, so I have some idea of the type of primary school you attended.

Are you willing to elaborate on exactly how and why you were so different to your peer group, and at what point in time the differences became apparent?

[George 1978]

Are you willing to elaborate on exactly how and why you were so different to your peer group, and at what point in time the differences became apparent?

Shall we say that I knew that I was different back then but didn't know exactly why?

[Arran]

Has anybody here read the 'famous' paper about Asperger syndrome written by Lorna Wing that was published in 1981? It seemed like every newspaper mentioned the paper in her obituary, but I would give a gold medal to any journalist who even knew of the existence of the paper back in the 1980s.

The book Autistic Children: A Guide for Parents and Professionals written by Lorna Wing that was published in 1985 effectively set the standard for autism in Britain until the publication of Autism and Asperger Syndrome by Uta Frith in 1991. I have read Lorna Wing's book and there is very little in it that applies to people with Asperger syndrome. Rather strangely, there is absolutely no reference to her 'famous' paper about Asperger syndrome in the book. Lorna Wing also did not seem to make any attempt to publicise Asperger syndrome amongst parents and teacher in more mainstream publications such as the Times Educational supplement, nor did she commission any documentaries about Asperger syndrome despite the creation of C4 since her 'famous' paper was published.

I am wondering if Lorna Wing had watched this elusive documentary series and it provided inspiration for research, although she doesn't seem to reference it even if she did watch it.

I have checked the books by Uta Frith and Tony Attwood and no reference is made to any TV programmes about children with (undiagnosed) Asperger syndrome during the 1970s.