Stop by here every Saturday for a family activity, a site for the kids, a shopping site, a site offering humor or inspiration about parenting children with special needs, and a site that's just silly or fun, all designed to get you through your weekend with kids amused and spirits intact. Today's list:

1. Activity: Shoebox Guitar
2. Kids' Site: IXL
3. Shopping: Therapro
4. Inspiration: Demand Respect for Your Child
5. Just for Fun: 2012 Readers' Choice Awards

Join the Discussion: Here's your weekly list of blog posts that have received comments this week. See what your fellow readers are talking about and add your opinion:

• Hospital Denies Kidney Transplant to Girl With Intellectual Disabilities (plus please note an update to the story at the end of the post)
• Children With Down Syndrome in Demand for Adoption
• Is Being Short a Disability?
• Diagnosing Autism in an Adult
• Guess We Have Our Answer from Groupon
• Autistic Kids, Violent Adults
• Get a Buddy Program Going
• Children With Down Syndrome in Demand for Adoption

Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

Sometimes, it seems that everybody we encounter in the course of our days with our kids has made it a personal mission to make us angry -- the judgmental stranger at the mall, the teacher nitpicking our child's performance, the doctor disregarding our observations, the school administrators playing fast and loose with services, the family member with nothing good to say. So it's particularly lovely when somebody, unexpectedly, says something nice about our child or our parenting. Maybe we treat that kind comment with suspicion. Or maybe it just gives us the will to keep going. I asked for you to share the nice things people say about your kids, and reader Carla told a story that made me smile this morning:

I had a friend over for a tea party -- which for my daughter, who is 8, means tea, sugar, creamer, cookies served on a silver tea tray, and using the good china. This was an event to be looked forward to, and my friend was welcomed in even though she was, by my daughter's terms, late. The tea party started at 3, and she arrived a few minutes after since she had never been to our home before. We had a lovely time, my daughter played hostess, told us what tea to drink and what snacks to eat, did the dishes, and told us when we were done so she could she wash the dishes. The best thing my friend could have said was when she has kids, she hopes she has a daughter just like mine. No one has ever said that about her. My friend loved her quirky sense of humor, intelligence, leadership, and honesty, and wants one just like her.

If you've heard something lovely like that from a friend or a relative or a stranger, share the happy story on the Reader's Respond page. We could all use a little good news now and then.

There's been lots of worry lately over the upcoming DSM-5 guidelines for autism and how they may kick some kids off the spectrum. So perhaps Fox's new series Touch is just ahead of the curve in showing a child losing his diagnosis. The new series, which stars Kiefer Sutherland, gets an advance preview tonight at 9 p.m. on Fox and then comes back for weekly episodes in March. If, like me, you've been looking forward to this show after hearing that Sutherland plays the father of a child with autism, you may be surprised to see that diagnosis fall away in this pilot episode. Times we live in, eh?

Actually, Fox's summary on the show's site still refers to the character of Jake (played by David Mazouz, pictured) as a "mute, severely autistic 11-year-old." But recent articles, including an interview with a consultant on Thinking Person's Guide to Autism and a Hitfix review by Alan Sepinwall, indicate that a scientist played by Danny Glover believes the boy is not autistic but has special powers that allow him to see connections and communicate with numbers. Perhaps the DSM-5 specifies that such spectacular and world-saving splinter skills disqualify one for a diagnosis.

I think Sepinwall makes an interesting point in his review when he writes of Jake's non-autism, "Given the autism epidemic in this country, it's this part of the show that has the most potential to cause problems. While [show creator Tim] Kring tries to make it clear that Jake has been misdiagnosed, the show still trades off of assumptions about autism and the 'Rain Man'-like notion that the condition can also grant those afflicted with it with seemingly magical powers as a form of compensation. It's uncomfortable at a minimum."

We've talked here about shows like The Big Bang Theory and Bones that use our awareness of Asperger syndrome to inform characterizations while not specifically tying the characters or writers to a diagnosis. Other shows, like Parenthood and Alphas, have gone ahead and embraced a diagnosis, making for a richer experience for those of us invested in depictions of special needs but also inviting all kinds of nitpicking. According to the Thinking Person's Guide to Autism post, Kring is the father of a child with autism, and had definite opinions about how Jake should be portrayed. So why duck the diagnosis? Doubt it's going to get people to stop analyzing the depiction and embrace the magic.

Speaking of special-needs TV shows, why not take a moment now to nominate your favorites for a Readers' Choice Award? Read the rules, or go right to the nominating ballot.

_{Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images}