In the last few decades, movies and TV shows portraying children and adults with autism spectrum and other disorders have spread a greater public awareness of the issues families of those with special needs have to face.
NBC's hit show 'Parenthood,' which aired three years ago, is just one of a number of movies and TV shows which have striven to create awareness about these real and challenging neurological disorders since the 80s.
Nine years ago the TV Movie "Miracle Run" raised awareness among young audiences about autism, while popular and heart-wrenching movies such as Rain Man (1988), I Am Sam (2001), and The Other Sister (1999) raised sympathies for adults struggling with disorders.
Parenthood, a TV series about the lives of four adult siblings, introduces its mainstream audience to a family whose eight year old son (Max) has been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome (AS), a neurodevelopment disorder categorized as a form of high-functioning autism.
Asperger's syndrome is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, communication difficulties, and restrictive and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests; however, differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development.
The exact cause of the syndrome is unknown.
The show has gotten a lot of positive attention for its realistic portrayal of Asperger syndrome and of the struggles involved.
This might have a lot to do the fact that the show's writer and executive producer, Jason Katims, has a son who struggles with Asperger syndrome.
"A lot of the story lines are drawn closely from my experiences," Katims said in an interview with Autism Speaks during the first year of the show's release.
"However, I have been careful to make the character of Max not like my son - there are differences in how they present, when they were diagnosed, etc.
It's important for me to protect my son's privacy.
" "I think my wife and I are way more exposed, since the stories are really told from the point of view of the parents," he explained.
"It's special needs being dealt with in a way that's real and an ongoing story," he told the Washington Post a year later.
"...
the overwhelming response has been 'Thank you for doing this.
'" The Asperger's Association of New England estimates that one in 250 people have Asperger syndrome - this, furthermore, is a rough estimate, since there has only been an official diagnosis in the U.
S.
for Asperger's since 1994 and as many as 50 percent of people with Asperger's are never diagnosed.
The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention reports that 11 per 1,000 children in the U.
S.
are diagnosed with autism.
One in 88 American children has an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), according to the CDC.
Children with Asperger's, like Max on Parenthood, are often very intelligent, with an impressive memory and a passion for knowledge on certain subjects.
However, they also often struggle with certain social behaviors, such as looking people in the eyes, and relating or empathizing with other people.
Max from Parenthood, for example, has trouble understanding common expressions because he takes them very literally - however, could tell to you just about anything you'd want to know about bugs.
Of Katims' hopes for the show and Max's story: "My hope would be that it normalizes it," he told the Newark Star-Ledger.
"So there's no stigma to it, no mystery to it.
"