Sunday, April 25, 2010

Autism Awareness: Asperger's goes mainstream

Even if your child is neurotypical, chances are he or she knows someone -- a classmate, a neighbor, a relative -- on the spectrum. With this in mind, PBS's hit children's show Arthur introduced a new friend to the intelligent aardvark's class earlier this month: A sweet, brown-haired bunny named Carl, who has Asperger's Syndrome.

"Imagine you've crash-landed on an alien planet," explains The Brain, another one of Arthur's friends. "It looks like Earth, but there are lots of differences."



As a parent with a child on the spectrum (our oldest son has Asperger's), I have to say that The Brain's description really rings true to me. And I love the way the simple explaination is given -- without judgement, without fear, without question that some people are just different.

1 comment:

Alysia said...

I recorded this on the DVR, and plan to keep it for a long time. Right now it's for my 8 yr old to help him understand his brother, and in a few years it will be for my son to help understand himself. Big thumbs up to PBS and Marc Brown for creating this episode.
Alysia
http://trydefyinggravity.wordpress.com/