Last season on NBC’s big-family drama, “Parenthood,” the overwhelming storyline was one family member’s battle with breast cancer. How does that not overshadow all of the other storylines? However, in case you missed it, there were plenty of situations in which Autism Spectrum Disorder continued to be woven in – most notably when Max Braverman was elected student council president!
In can you need a refresher or haven’t ever seen the show, Max is character who has Asperger’s syndrome. I’ve chronicled parts of past seasons in previous blog posts, here and here.
I invite you to watch it tonight (Thursdays) at 10 PM and follow along with me this season. I’ll plan on providing a little commentary and important updates about how Max tackles middle school every several episodes, so please let me know what you think about this season – I think they’ve done a great job capturing at least one picture of Autism Spectrum Disorder.
That statement made everyone perk up two Fridays ago as well, when Michelle Garcia Winner spoke at a day-long conference presented by Seattle Children’s Autism Guild, “Thinking About YOU, Thinking About ME.” Michelle went on to point out that obviously Little Red wasn’t a very good observer, unable to make the distinction between her grandma and a vicious wolf. All the while, noticing the details (e.g. “my, what big teeth you have.”), but not the bigger picture (i.e. she might want to run away to avoid the same fate as her grandma). But the conference was much more than a social commentary on fairy tales. 
