'Sesame Street' Introduces First Character With Autism
"Sesame Street" last Wednesday opened its doors to the world of children with Autism by featuring its newest digital character, Julia, an autistic child that plays with all other "Sesame Street" characters.
In light of the issue on children with autism being bullied, "Sesame Street Workshop" revealed its latest initiative, "Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children," which, according to People, aims to reduce the "stigma of autism".
The free downloadable app reportedly includes video or digital story cards with "Sesame Street's" newest character, Julia. CBS News reports that one story in the new "Sesame Street" digital book shows how Julia interacts differently to Abby, which Elmo explains is because of autism.
"Elmo's daddy told Elmo that she has autism," Elmo explained as quoted by CBS News. "So she does things a little differently." The goal for the new "Sesame Street" initiative is to raise awareness for children with Autism according to the senior vice president of U.S. social impact, Dr. Jeanette Betancourt.
"Children with autism are five times more likely to get bullied," Dr. Betancourt told People. "And with one in 68 children having autism, that's a lot of bullying. Our goal is to bring forth what all children share in common, not their differences. Children with autism share in the joy of playing and loving and being friends and being part of a group."
Not only to bring awareness but also apparently to teach other children the proper way to interact with autistic children, just like in Julia's character.
Dr. Betancourt further explains to People magazine that the project is meant to teach children how to interact with children with autism especially since autistic children act differently and sometimes they even tend to seem like they are not interested in being friendly because of their actions.
"If you're five years old, and see another kid not making eye contact with you, you may think that child doesn't want to play with you. But that's not the case," executive vice president of global impacts and philanthropy, Sherrie Westin told People. "We want to create greater awareness and empathy."
Furthermore, according to Westin, the newest character is available digitally because it has a wide range of audience. Westin explained that the times are different and digital content reaches more families especially children and so the project would be easily available for them so awareness for autism is fully projected.
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