Special-Needs Shows I Missed -- Did You?

Several special-needs TV offerings came to my attention over the weekend, two reality, one recycled. Given that my TV viewing lately is mostly limited to overhearing the Disney Channel movies my daughter watches and the Maverick oldies my husband favors as I sit at my desk typing, I saw only a portion of one of these. But since they're all either available online or re-running soon, I thought I'd tip you off in case you wanted to catch up with them, or weigh in if you've seen them already.

On Thursday, ABC's Private Practice had a measles and vaccines storyline that -- judging by a description on the blog Fearless Females -- sounds exactly like an ER plot I hated eight years ago. Is there really nothing new to say about the autism-vaccine debate beyond "If you do not vaccinate your child because of autism fears, he will die of measles, you foolish, foolish parent"? Was there more nuance than that in the episode? Was the mother treated with any more understanding than Carter had to give back in 2001? If you watched the show (or catch up with it now on ABC's online episode viewer, which works wonky on my computer but may do fine on yours), let me know.

On Saturday, when I was falling asleep on the couch after a long day of shuttling kids around in the snow and nearly driving up a freeway offramp onto a major highway, Vern Yip was transforming the home of a single mother and her adult son with Fragile X on the HGTV show Deserving Design. The episode will be shown again on February 8 at 2 p.m., but you can read more about it now in an article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Or in the comments, if anybody watched it and wants to report in.

On Sunday, ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition did what it so often does: Built a customized high-tech home to grant new freedom and safety to a child with special needs. In this case, it was an eight-year-old firecracker named Jake, who has osteogenesis imperfecta and dwarfism and unbelievable spirit. Also, two adoptive sisters with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which of course caught my attention. I'd have liked to have learned more about all of them, but I was watching with my daughter, who has a very strict Extreme Makeover routine: DVR the show, watch the intro where the family explains why they need the makeover, then fast-forward to the end to see the fabulous new house. All that heart-tugging human interest and demolition in between? Bo-ring, says she. If she didn't erase it, I may be able to watch more this week. If you didn't even get so far as taping it, it's also available on the ABC episode viewer, and there's a cute story about the family adjusting to the house in the Peoria Journal Star.

Did you see any other special-needs-related shows recently? Write about those in the comments, too.

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