Submitted by guest blogger Ruth OT

Our daughter recently appeared on a UK Kids TV show called  Something Special. I was ridiculously excited CBEEBIESabout it and told lots of people who never usually watch CBeebies, the BBC children’s channel, that they just had to see her.

Filming was brief but exciting. We got to meet Justin briefly (one child was very disappointed Mr Tumble wasn’t there too) and the team were genuinely very lovely.
Some of the people who would never normally watch CBeebies were surprised there is a programme which exclusively features children with special needs and/or disabilities, they felt that pointing out the difference wasn’t kind and the kids should be encouraged to blend into a typically developing world. This was a good opportunity to explain how the show “Something Special” had helped other children to understand the way our girl supports her speech with signing and to not be phased by her difference. We’ve often heard comments like…“oh look! She signs like Mr Tumble does!”.
Then a friend asked what I thought of “Pablo”, another CBeebies programme about a little autistic boy and the imaginary world he creates to navigate the confusing things around him. Of course, I had to investigate. I watched a little video of the autistic boy who plays Pablo explaining that he thought it was important for other children to understand autistic children so that they would want to play with them and that Pablo helped that, and I was ready to investigate.
So, I sat down with four kids to watch. The 8 and 10-year-old exclaimed in unison “Oh, I love Pablo!” so of course, I asked them what the show is about “a little boy with a really good imagination who draws stories about things”. Fair enough. And so we all sat and watched the show together…

In the episode, Pablo and his mum are going about really everyday things (cleaning a bin in the first one we watched) and Pablo’s mum uses a phrase he doesn’t really understand to explain what she’s doing. He knows he mustn’t touch the “smell gobbler” but doesn’t understand why. Pablo draws his fears, in this case, he is concerned that the “smell gobbler” might eat his own familiar safe smell which he likes and then what would he do? He and the cartoon characters that represent aspects of him, problem solve it and trap the “smell gobbler” under the laundry basket. Mum comes back and is amused to find her air freshener trapped.

I actually loved the show. The kids who told me they loved Pablo hadn’t spotted that he’s autistic (the 8-year-old is usually quite a diagnostician) and yet they loved that he has such a really good imagination. watching the show together opens up a way to talk about autism with her and how her autistic sibling and friends might see the world a bit differently. It touched on the sensory differences that can come with autism and the importance of sameness for people with autism and modelled a useful way for children with autism to reason through problems and confusions they encounter.

I have a speech therapist friend who is very keen on creating comic strips with children as a method of problem-solving and reasoning through PABLOsituations before they happen. I could do that or I could just let my kids carry on enjoying a funny cartoon about “what if we really meant exactly what we say?”.

It’s my job to watch what my kids are watching and use it to start those conversations with them. I’m so glad these programmes give us a platform to start that.