Find Station
 

"Sesame Street" Will Introduce New Character With Autism

Julia, an orange-haired, green-eyed puppet, and the first muppet with autism will debut on PBS 'Sesame Street' in April.

Julia made her first appearance on “60 Minutes” Sunday night.

The opening of the episode, which shows Elmo and Abby Cadabby introducing Julia to Big Bird, shows the new girl reluctant to shake hands with the bird.

“Sesame Street” writer Christine Ferraro explains: “It’s tricky because autism is not one thing, because it is different for every single person who has autism.

"There is an expression that goes, ‘If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.”

The episode wraps up with the characters playing tag. Julia gets so excited that she jumps up and down.

“And then it turns into a game where they're all jumping like her. So it was a very easy way to show that with a very slight accommodation they can meet her where she is."

Source: NY Daily News