In the United States, it is estimated that one in 68 children are born with autism. More than 3.5 million Americans live with autism, and about 35 percent of people living with autism do not receive secondary education or get a job after high school. Many of us can think of an autistic child in our classrooms growing up, who we maybe couldn’t understand at a young age.
Autism is extremely prevalent in our society, and a difficult thing for many kids who are considered “normal” to understand. Many children with autism are integrated into classrooms without special needs students. This is in order for them to receive their entitled appropriate public education in the least-restrictive environment, as governed by the federal law.
This means that children who have no idea what autism is, or how a child with autism might behave and why, will come in contact with autistic children on a daily basis.
Children with autism are five times more likely to be bullied then a child without autism, and this is largely because children in integrated schools are not educated about the disorder.
With Sesame Street’s new autistic character Julia, this can change. Sesame Street has been meeting with organizations like Autism Speaks and Autism Self Advocacy in order to find a way to reduce the negative stigma surrounding children on the autism spectrum, and what they have decided to do is groundbreaking.
The introduction of an autistic character will make the difficult conversation about autism that parents need to have with their child much easier. In Sesame Street’s “See Amazing in All Children” campaign video, muppet Abby Cadabby adorably explains that “Lots of kids have autism and that just means their brains work a little differently.”
With children seeing Julia on Sesame Street every morning, they will become familiar with autism, and hopefully learn to love and accept their autistic classmates despite their differences—and in the long run, not just children with autism, but people of all varieties.
Teaching children to acknowledge and accept the diversity between them and their classmates will help them to grow into members of society who continue that acceptance, and change the future culture of our world for the better.
Here is Sesame Street's Autism Video.
