Meet the Hero Elementary Autistic Character

My son was born in 2003 and was diagnosed with autism in 2005. At that time, there were not many accurate representations of autism. So in 2011, I started writing about my experience as a special needs parent and doing public speaking as “Autism Daddy.” I started writing daily about what life is like in my household. I didn’t write “miracle” stories or “horrible” stories. Mostly, I wrote about the mundane stuff. My writing eventually developed into a blog about a dad raising a son who also happens to have autism.

As mainstream-media has evolved, stories of children with special needs have become more common. And I’m proud to say that I have been involved in this positive movement. As a producer on Sesame Street, I work closely on their autism initiative, “See Amazing in All Children” and now there’s a new series I’ve been consulting on.

The new educational animated series, Hero Elementary, launched in June on PBS KIDS. In the series, children meet AJ Gadgets, a main character of the show’s “Sparks’ Crew,” who happens to be on the autism spectrum. Co-produced by Twin Cities PBS and Portfolio Entertainment, the series aims to spark a love of science in children ages 4 to 7.

Carol-Lynn Parente and Christine Ferraro are the two women behind this groundbreaking series. They were also instrumental in launching Sesame Street’s autism initiative.

I was thrilled when Christine and Carol-Lynn asked me to be a consultant for Hero Elementary. My role was to ensure that autism was being portrayed accurately, and that their autistic character, AJ, was a good representation of a high-functioning child on the spectrum.

For the past two years, I reviewed over 80 scripts and I can proudly say that the autistic character is truly just one of the Crew. AJ flaps his hands when he’s anxious, wears noise canceling headphones when needed, and he doesn't like it when his clothes get wet. AJ has his quirks, but his friends accept him for who he is. Most of my feedback to the producers focused on how the other characters reacted when AJ had his moments. I wanted AJ’s friends to be supportive, but to never come across as patronizing.

The strongest thing about AJ is that his autism is not his superpower. In fact, AJ’s autism is rarely mentioned throughout the series. AJ is just one of the Crew. AJ is Black, which was a conscious decision by the creative team. Research shows that Black children on the spectrum often get diagnosed much later than their peers. The hope is that AJ could open the doors to an earlier diagnosis for all children who are on the spectrum.

“We didn’t set out to create a character on the spectrum,” Carol-Lynn Parente explained to me, “We created the character, AJ, and from our research on creating Julia for Sesame Street, we knew that the description of AJ could be a child on the spectrum. Having an autistic character on TV is, thankfully, more common, but not as a leading character… and of course AJ is a superhero to boot! We hope that modeling how autism manifests in AJ will help build an understanding of people on the spectrum and lead to acceptance and inclusion.”

Christine Ferraro added, “To me, one of the strengths of the way we treat AJ's autism on the show is that we don't make a big deal about it. AJ is high-functioning, and has mannerisms, sensitivities and interests that show his autism, but they are not usually pointed out or the center of focus. People who are ‘in the know’ and are familiar with autism will recognize these attributes, while other people might just see AJ as a quirky child. We do have one special, double-length episode in which AJ's autism is discussed explicitly, in a positive context. But for most of the episodes, his autism is just a part of who he is: a valuable member of the team, and a friend everyone cares about. That, to me, stands out as different from the way autism is seen in other shows, and is a strength of Hero Elementary.”

This subtle, but powerful message will shift the autism narrative in mainstream media. In my humble opinion, Hero Elementary has everything going for it: fun engaging characters, science and literacy focused curriculum, the best creative minds involved in it, and it’s about superheroes! I’m thrilled that parents have this amazing show to share with their children.

Click here for the full article published in Exceptional Parent Magazine.