that essentially was the mission back then. >> we do our research right here. >> reporter: sarrc evennched its own scientific research center-- and studied and developed autism-specific currricula-- it was an all out campaign that lasted years. the only thing was-- matt did not recover from autism. the available therapies can lead to dramatically different results in different people. in matt's, he did make strides. he learned to bike and hike-- and to read some words and multiply numbers in his head-- which came in handy when he helped his mom bake. but some things got worse. >> he would eat things that were not edible. in a year he chewed through 132 shirts. >> reporter: nor did matt ever learn to recognize danger in the usual sense. even now, he wouldn't know what to do if, say, something in the oven caught fire. and his language still has serious limits. he has never in his life asked a question-- or put together a spoken sentence of his own making. he never could talk the way he could sing-- even back then-- when denise was still counting on this little kid outgrowing the challen