Last month, Ron Suskind had a gripping article in the New York Times Magazine about how he used his autistic son’s love of Disney movie to reach his boy. The article was an except from his new memoir about raising his son.

Today, the Times discusses how Suskind’s memoir is helping to spur new research and to create a new approach towards educated kids, primarily those with more severe needs.

It’s pretty cool how a parenting memoir can shift the scientific and educational research. Each family is its own laboratory, after all.