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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention has reported that one in 54 kids were

diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder by

age 8 in 2016, a nearly 10% increase over 2014

when the estimate was 1 in 59.

The series leans into scientific principles as

the characters confront various missions, like

dealing with a huge ball rolling through the

city, or taking care of a just-hatched baby swan.

A helpful teacher encourages them to keep

finding solutions even if they don’t succeed

at first, teaching such skills as observing,

investigating, testing and predicting.

“You don’t come into this world knowing how

to do everything. And so these kids struggle to

learn in school, just like our kids struggle to learn

how to do things,” said Ferraro.

Linda Simensky, head of content at PBS Kids,

said she was drawn to AJ’s inclusion and

the show’s message of kids solving their

own problems.

“A lot of people pitch shows where there’s an

expert and kids just go to the expert and ask

how to do things,” she said. “And we have done

everything we can to stay away from those kinds

of shows. The adults in our shows always say,

‘Well, you know, that’s a good question. How do

you think we should get to that answer?’ And

they tease it out of the kids, which is how it often

is in real life.”

Ferraro and Parente are longtime veterans of

“Sesame Street,” which in 2015 introduced Julia,

a 4-year-old girl Muppet with autism. They didn’t

initially intend to have a child with autism on

“Hero Elementary,” but as they fleshed out AJ’s

character it started to make sense.

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