With just a few days remaining to celebrate the International Day of Consciousness on Autism, Sesame Street has decided to include “Julia,” a new character to the crew of the show. “60 Minutes” reporter Lesley Stahl joined the episode and spoke to Big Bird and Elmo to help them adjust to Julia’s arrival.
Christine Ferraro, the show’s writer, decided to embrace this topic because is something most families deal with and it’s important for children around the world to get familiarize with it, to create a more favorable and receptive environment that responds to the needs of these children and their relatives.
Meet Julia, Sesame Street’s first autistic muppet.
Lesley Stahl joined the recording of the first chapter where the new character from “Sesame Street,” Julia will appear.
Television is used to educate young children.
They wanted to create Julia’s character in a way that other children watching the show could relate to. Lesley Stahl visited the set when Julia was introduced to Big Bird, “we had to explain to Big Bird that Julia likes Big Bird. It’s just that Julia has autism,” Elmo said to her, “so sometimes it takes her a little longer to do things,” the muppet added.
A new character on Sesame Street.
Julia is Sesame Street’s first autistic muppet, she embraces a character that is on the spectrum. Among Julia’s attributes, there are the bright hair and the big expressive eyes, she also likes to paint, to pick flowers and when she speaks, often repeats what she hears her friends say, which is very common for autistic kids.
Christine Ferraro would like her to be “just Julia.”
During an interview with the reporter Lesley Stahl, Sesame Street’s writer Christine Ferraro expressed that she would love Julia to become a major character, to be “not Julia the kid on Sesame Street who has autism, I would like her to be just Julia.”
Stacey Gordon, the voice of Julia, has a son with autism.
Playing Julia is a very personal thing for the 37-year-old Phoenix resident Stacey Gordon, as her son also has autism. In an interview with 60 Minutes, Gordon claimed that having an autistic character on Sesame Street means “that their kids are important enough to be seen in society.”
Source: NY Daily News