Good evening everyone and
welcome to The Magical Mystery Blog.
“Sesame Street” has been in our hearts for as long as people can remember. Starting on November 10th, 1969, this program pretty much taught us everything from our abcs to 123s. However, the series has been known to reflect on other issues such as feelings, breast feeding, diversity, and now, autism.
Autism is a mental illness
that appears in early childhood and makes it complicated for the person to
communicate and form relationships. They use abstract thoughts, repetitive
motions, and language to help the other person understand what they’re saying.
So far one in sixty eight children have this mental illness, but to help the
public understand more about autism, “Sesame Street” decided to do something
rather grand and amazing.
On October 21st, 2015 “Sesame Street” introduced Julia, a new friend to the iconic cast. She has autism and along with her debut came a new program within the series that showcases autistic children, showing how despite their mental illness, they are still amazing people. To further raise awareness for autism, "Sesame Street" has devoted some features on their website to helping parents and children understand autism, how to counteract bullies, exercises, customizable cards, educational cards, and even an online storybook called “We’re Amazing, 1,2,3” featuring Julia and Elmo. They have also developed an app entitled: “Sesame Street and Autism: See All in Amazing Children” that depicts the lives of autistic children and just how great they can be. The app also includes resources on how to further help children with autism. “Sesame Street” is using #SeeAmazing as a gateway for those who have autism to share their stories, offer some advice, and generally show support for those who have autism.
Sesame Workshop (a nonprofit organization that supports “Sesame Street” and other educational programs) has also teamed up with fourteen other organizations to raise autism awareness. Some of these organizations include Autism Speaks, Autism Self-Advocacy Network, and the Yale Child Study Center. The organization Exceptional Minds contributed to Sesame Workshop’s autism project by creating a short animation regarding autism. The animation was crafted by young adults who have autism and focus on the life of Benny, a little red rectangle, who has this mental illness to show what life is like for him.
In my life, I’ve met people who have autism and I understand that it must not be easy. After all, bullies are more drawn to those who have autism, thus quintupling those who have this mental illness as opposed to those who don’t. For something as beloved as “Sesame Street” to go above and beyond their everyday programming to promote autism awareness is amazing. Their overall attempt for promoting autism awareness is to “normalize” the mental illness so that the bullying will lessen and people will have a better grasp of the mental illness. Personally, I hope this initiative succeeds not only for Sesame Street, but for autistic people as well.
Thank you for reading tonight’s entry. If you enjoyed it, feel free to subscribe, share, comment, and/or critique.
So tell me, what are your thoughts on this movement?
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