Superhero with Autism Shines in New PBS Kids’ Series
Group of Superheroes from the series “Hero Elementar”
There’s a new group of superheroes coming out this summer in the PBS Kids’ animated series is called “Hero Elementary”. The series takes place inside an elementary school where a diverse group of 4 superhero students are trying to learn to control their own special powers.
They all have different powers, for example, one of the characters knows how to fly, one knows how to teleport, one knows how to make forcefields of bubbles and the fourth has a collection of cool devices. The character with the plethora of devices, AJ Gadgets, portrays a high-functioning student on then autism spectrum. Some of his characteristics are that he doesn’t to be far away from his backpack, doesn’t like loud noises or wet clothes. He is an integral part of the team and is always there to the rescue.
Ferraro and Parente were the ones who in 2015 introduced Julia to ‘Sesame Street’, a 4-year-old Muppet with autism. “There’s so much strength in describing a kid with autism as just one kid more of the group and not make his autism a big deal,” said Christine Ferraro and Carol-Lynn Parente, the creators of the series to AP News.
At first, they didn’t anticipate having one of the characters have autism on “Hero Elementary”, but after they started developing the AJ Gadgets character everything fell into place.
The series has to do with the superheroes confronting different missions. For example, one episode’s mission is focused on stopping a huge ball rolling down the city. The four students have a helpful teacher that inspires them to find solutions and encourages them to use their skills such as observing, investigating, testing and predicting.
“I liked AJ’s existence in the show and also the message of kids solving their own problems,” says Linda Simensky, the head of content at PBS Kids, to AP News.
The creators tried to teach compassion by showing that AJ’s friends know about his needs, preferences and would do anything for AJ. Viewers familiar with autism might pick up on AJ’s behavior, but the creators are fine if other viewers don’t notice. They’ve purposely not directly addressed autism except for a double-episode slated to run later in the series.
The series has a duration of 11 minutes and is for children from 4 to 7 years old. It premiered in June 2020 on PBS stations, the PBS Kids 24/7 channel and PBS Kids digital platforms.