Arnold J. Capute

Biography of Arnold J. Capute

Arnold J. Capute was a pioneer in the study and treatment of children with developmental disabilities and Professor of Pediatrics at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Capute graduated from Queens College and Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia. He began his career in paediatrics in 1948 and maintained a general paediatrics practice on Long Island, New York for nearly two decades. In 1965 he was invited to Baltimore to become the first fellow in Developmental Pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, at the newly opened John F. Kennedy Institute, now known as Kennedy Krieger Institute. Here, when few paediatricians knew how to diagnose or treat children with developmental disorders like cerebral palsy, autism, and mental retardation, he did a pioneering effort in establishing neurodevelopmental disabilities as a speciality in paediatrics.

Capute was director of the first training program in developmental paediatrics and has trained a majority of the paediatricians in this field. He received numerous teaching awards; the last of them was in November 2003, when he received the American Academy of Pediatrics Educator Award, given to member paediatricians whose educational activities have had a broad and positive impact on the health and well-being of children.

"From my experience as a trainee, faculty member and colleague, I believe Dr. Capute represented the epitome of the clinician educator"
Dr. Paul Lipkin, director of Kennedy Krieger's Center for Development and Learning.