Television Reviews : ‘Kids like These’ on CBS

Raising a child with Down’s syndrome has got to be harder than it looks in “Kids Like These” (Sunday at 9 p.m. on Channels 2 and 8). The characters are so heroic that one doubts if there are real people like these.

The child--played at various ages by five boys, all of whom have Down’s syndrome--is unusually bright for someone who’s supposedly retarded. He can count in four different languages at a very early age (although his precise age at any one moment is usually glossed over). The movie credits infant stimulation and parental tirelessness with this phenomenon.

In the big finale, as the boy’s mother is finally acknowledging his limits and the importance of accepting “plain, ordinary retarded persons,” the boy literally stops the show with another display of enterprising intelligence.

His mom (Tyne Daly) is an indefatigable overachiever. Near the end of the movie, she claims to be tired of being Superwoman, but we don’t believe it for a moment.

She returns to work before the boy’s first birthday, yet she doesn’t make one peep about the agony of finding good child care.

Dad (Richard Crenna) is so agreeable that he capitulates almost immediately to his wife’s desire to have still another child. By this point, this woman must be well into her 40s, yet the increased risk of Down’s syndrome in the children of older mothers isn’t mentioned.

“Kids Like These” is based primarily on the experiences of Emily Perl Kingsley, who also co-wrote the script with Allan Sloane. As an advocate for increased opportunities for these children, Kingsley has probably done a world of good, and this movie, capably directed by Georg Stanford Brown, may contribute to that effort. But there’s a big difference between effective advocacy and effective drama.