Eric Schopler (February 8, 1927 â July 7, 2006) was a German-born American psychologist whose research into autism led to the foundation of the Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH) program.
Eric Schopler was born February 8, 1927, in Fürth, Germany to Erna Oppenheimer Schopler and Ernst Schopler, who were Jewish. In 1938 his family fled Nazi Germany and emigrated to the U.S., where they settled in Rochester, New York.
Schopler married Betsy Burch in 1953 and together they had three children: Bobby, Tom and Susie. Following his divorce in 1970, he married Margaret Lansing. He died at the age of 79 from cancer on July 7, 2006, at his home near Mebane, North Carolina.
After graduating from high school, Schopler joined the United States Army. In 1949 Schopler earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago. In 1955, he attained a graduate degree in Social Service Administration. He earned a PhD in clinical child psychology in 1964. All three degrees were attained at the University of Chicago.
After attaining his graduate degree, Schopler worked from 1955 to 1958 as a family counselor in Rochester, New York. He moved to Rhode Island, where he worked for two years at the Emma P. Bradley Hospital as its acting chief psychiatric social worker. In 1960, he worked in Chicago at the Treatment and Research Center for Childhood Schizophrenia. He was an investigator and therapist there until 1964, the same year that he attained his doctorate from University of Chicago.
In 1964, Schopler was hired as an associate professor by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's (UNC's) psychiatry department. He became the director of its Child Research Project in 1966. In collaboration with Dr. Robert Reichler, he applied his earlier research on receptor processes to the treatment of autism. Funding was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health and trials were conducted with autistic children and their parents.
As a result of Schopler's work for the Child Research Project, TEACCH was created at UNC in 1971, and he was made co-director of the program in 1972. TEACCH is an autism-focused education, research and clinical-services program that has led to an enhanced understanding of autistic individuals. Schopler showed that most autistic children did not have mental disorders, as was believed by many at the time. He also proved that parents of autistic children could be effective collaborators in the treatment and education of their children. Thanks to these TEACCH results, in 1972, Schopler's methods were rolled out statewide in North Carolina schools and special state-funded clinics.
In 1973, Schopler was made a full professor at UNC. In 1976, he became the primary director of TEACCH and remained so until 1993. He became the associate chair for developmental disabilities at the university's psychiatry department in 1992, a title he held until 1996. Schopler also served as the department's chief psychologist from 1987 to 1999. He worked on UNC's TEACCH program until 2005.
The TEACCH methodology has been implemented internationally and, as of 2006, in North Carolina, there were nine TEACCH state-funded clinics in operation.
In 1989, Schopler and two of his UNC colleagues (Andrew Short and Gary Mesibov) co-authored a paper criticizing the 1987 study of autistic children overseen by UCLA psychology professor Ole Ivar Lovaas. In the 1987 study, Lovaas claimed that nearly half the test subjects he assigned to receive intensive, longterm applied behavior analysis had fully "recovered" from autism and co-occurring intellectual disability. Schopler, Short and Mesibov claimed Lovaas' study was compromised by flawed outcome measures, subject selection bias and inadequate controls. They stated, "Based on these issues, the most conservative conclusion to be drawn is that it is not possible to determine the effects of this intervention."
Schopler was editor for Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders from 1974 until 1997, when he was succeeded by Mesibov. He was also on the Schizophrenia Bulletin and the Topics in Early Childhood Special Education editorial boards.
Schopler was a member of the Society for Research in Child Development, American Association on Mental Deficiency, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. He also served on the advisory boards of the Autism Society of America, the Autism Society of North Carolina, the Linwood Children's Center (Ellicott City, Maryland) and Bitter Sweet Farms (Toledo, Ohio).
He received the following recognition for his work:
More than 200 articles and books related to autism were written by Schopler. Below is a partial list of some of the works he edited or co-authored.