“There Was A Weirdness” About Young Adam Lanza

Nancy Lanza worried about her youngest son, and confided in a close friend.

“Don’t touch Adam,” she warned Marvin LaFontaine, whose young son participated in the Cub Scouts with Adam. “He just can’t stand that.”

Adam would get upset when other kids gave him a high-five or a pat on the back, Nancy told LaFonataine. She struggled to find counselors she could trust or who she felt truly understood Adam’s problem.

“I could see it was bringing her down,” said LaFontaine. “She didn’t know what to do.”

As a young boy, Adam was diagnosed with sensory integration disorder — a not widely accepted diagnosis that involves difficulties processing and reacting to stimuli — a family member told FRONTLINE and The Hartford Courant, who teamed up to examine the aftermath of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

In the above clip from tonight’s Raising Adam Lanza, Marvin LaFontaine describes his interactions with Adam with Courant reporters Alaine Griffin and Josh Kovner.

LaFontaine also shares a never-before-seen 1996 home video he filmed of Nancy and a young Adam at a Cub Scouts outing.

You can watch the full film online or on air tonight, starting at 10 pm EST. (Check local listings here.) Explore more of the Courant‘s reporting on the Newtown shootings here.