Episode Detail: Growing Up Different - Scientific American Frontiers
This episode explores why children with various handicaps “see the world the way they do,” says host Alan Alda, who also surveys treatments for them. First up: Alda visits a party at the Salk Institute in LaJolla, Cal., for people with Williams Syndrome, a genetic brain disorder that affects some cognitive functions negatively and others positively. Alda then visits autistic children in Seattle; children in Massachusetts who have had cochlear implants; and a woman who uses sophisticated digital devices to speak.