Sesame Street will be introducing a new character to their television show that will bring light to autism.
The show will be welcoming Julia, a muppet with autism.
“The big discussion right at the start was, ‘How do we do this? How do we talk about autism?’” Sesame Street writer Christine Ferraro told the CBS News show 60 Minutes.
“It’s tricky because autism is not one thing, because it is different for every single person who has autism.”
About one in 68 children have been identified with autism spectrum disorder in the United States.
Julia will display some of the common characteristics of autism which will start to appear in her debut episode.
When she is introduced to Big Bird, she ignores him which makes Big Bird believe that she didn’t like him. However, the other muppets inform him that “she does things just a little differently.”
Julia also starts jumping up and down out of excitement when the muppets play tag which Ferraro said is “a typical sign of autism.”
Julia’s puppeteer, Stacey Gordon, is also the mother of an autistic son.
“Had my son’s friends been exposed to his behaviours through something that they had seen on TV before they experienced them in the classroom, they might not have been frightened,” she told 60 Minutes.
“They might not have been worried when he cried. They would have known that he plays in a different way, and that that’s OK,” Gordon said.
Julia is already included in the digital and print storybooks. She has been a character in them since late 2015, but this is her first television appearance.
“I would love her to be not Julia, the kid on Sesame Street who has autism,” she said. “I would like her to be just Julia,” Ferraro said.
Julia will debut on Sesame Street in April on channels PBS and HBO.
Laina Yost
Managing Editor