Movie about Learning Disability Children from 1970's

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I looked up a movie from a long time ago that played on prime time television, starring Sally Struthers. I was still in elementary school at the time. It originally aired January 28, 1979 (in the USA) I remember when my Aunt called from the West Coast to look for my cousin. He's on the low functioning end of the Autism spectrum. He played as an extra in the movie. The film crew went to the special school where he attended, and some autistic children participated. He was one of them. I've written a relative out west and asking if (for certain) this is my cousin in the screen shot... he's actually autistic, and not deaf. I hope I can get a verification, though I'm almost certain it is him, and was the child we were looking for, wayyyyyyyy back then. Sure favors my cousin. I live on the East Coast.. so I didn't grow up around my relatives out west.

[img][650:500]http://i980.photobucket.com/albums/ae289/sharon36_photos/jonah.jpg[/img]

A lot of the same scenerios that happen in the story, are what happens to Aspergers children.. such as mistaken for something they're not (misdiagnosed) -- the boy is deaf, mistaken as ret*d... or, like seen in the movie, at that point in time, some must've been against teaching deaf children sign language. Is it really possible to believe people could ever be so ignorant?? and discriminatory... teachers HURTING people by depriving them of what they need.

And Your Name Is Jonah
A couple whose son had been diagnosed as mentally ret*d, and was institutionalized, are shocked to discover that the diagnosis was wrong, and that their son is deaf, not ret*d.
http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi4025156121/
(Full version of the movie)

What's so odd, I grew up hearing about my 1st cousin having (low functioning) Autism... I even met him years ago. I heard the television documentaries about Autism... and I knew at the same time I had some kind of invisible problem that was robbing me blind of friendships and social connections... I'd never put it together in a million years that it was Autism. In fact, when the school broke the news to me around 2006/2007 that my son was suspect for Aspergers Syndrome... it took a while to connect the dots... not in a million years -- in fact, his behaviors even seemed "normal" to me. Only after I read the list of symptoms, everything began sinking in... but only surface suspicions at first. Not until I had it on paper... reading it for myself black and white, and hearing it literally verified from the mouth of a autism specialist in the year 2009... did I really embrace the SEVERITY of how real Aspergers Syndrome was in our family. I became alarmed for sake of my two other daughters at that time... and my worst fears were confirmed with their diagnoses, just a few months afterward.

I say "fears" but actually in hindsight, its the best thing that ever happened for them and myself, because now they're beginning to receive the help they need to survive in school. The full weight of the shock... hearing "Autism" your entire life.. the word didn't even seem real... seemed like it was 3500 Miles away and couldn't possibly affect me personally, knowing you're intelligent, conscience/aware of your environment -- but you feel the subtle disconnect -- AUTISM was like a bomb when I was first informed.

For the record... I was wrong wrong wrong

My Aunt wrote me back,

My cousin is on the low functioning end of the Autism spectrum.

He's fascinating in some ways.

He will beat anyone who plays against him at checkers.
He spends the days with his Dad collecting old newspapers from neighbors, and spends the rest of the week repetitively straightening the newspaper into full sized squares, each leaf neatly stacked on top of each other, perfectly neat and straight into heavy/thick stacks of newspaper leafs. THEN he rolls the stack into a tight, heavy roll and ties it.

He makes roll after roll after roll of newspaper and resells them to recycling. He has done this for year after year after year...

In 1989 or so, I visited the West Coast and watched him as he worked. He became agitated and told me, "You are looking at me. It makes me very nervous." He did not like anyone standing over him.... I got the **** out of there. I sensed a meltdown was coming on.