On extreme love & autism

MANILA, Philippines - The Developmental Learning Center in Warren, New Jersey is a distinguished school. Every need and whim of its 250 students is met. Everything, from meals to medicine, is provided on-campus. Those enrolled in the campus enjoy an elite student-to-teacher ratio of 1.5:1. It is, without question, one of US’ leading innovators in the field of education.

Such a description would naturally lead one to make the assumption that the school is one meant for the country’s rich and powerful. The reality of things, however, is a stark contrast to such an idea. Rather, the DLC is a specialized school for the treatment of children with autism, a debilitating disorder that is characterized by an inability to function normally in social situations. Those with autism — which, alarmingly, has seen its rate of diagnosis steadily increasing in the past 20 years — aren’t sick. They simply can’t perform the social functions that most of us take for granted.

Many of them are enrolled at the school as a last resort to solve their increasingly erratic behavior.

In Extreme Love — Autism, Louis Theroux takes us on a journey into the inner workings of the school and its treatment of this increasingly rampant disorder.

Catch Stories: Extreme Love — Autism on May 28 at 8 p.m. and with Stories marathon replay on June 1 at 8 p.m. on Solar News Channel.