Sesame Workshop Creates New Resources Help Children with Autism
Famous Sesame Street Muppet, Julia, is featured in fun videos, coloring activities, bedtime tips, and more to help children with autism and their families through challenging times
Get kid-friendly activities sent to you!
Get the Best Kid-Friendly Activities
Sent to You Weekly!
Multilingual digital story book. Muppet friends Elmo and Abby Cadabby learn different ways to play with Julia and help her feel safe and comfortable in We're Amazing 1, 2, 3. Sesame Workshop partnered with Friends of Children with Special Needs to make the stories available in Mandarin and Cantonese to address the unique challenges Chinese-American children with autism face, including the cultural stigma sometimes associated with autistic children in the Chinese community.
The Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children program was created in 2015. Sesame Workshop designed it in collaboration with organizations and experts within the autism community. Exceptional Minds, which created the new animated video, has been one of those collaborators since the program’s start.
"The Exceptional Minds team of artists on the spectrum continue to showcase their writing, producing, and animation talents on our latest Sesame Workshop short, Backyard Camping,” says David Siegel, executive director of Exceptional Minds. “This project amplifies the workplace skills of our amazing artists while shining a light on autism inclusion. Eighty percent of adults with autism are unemployed or underemployed, but with Sesame Workshop’s continued partnership, we are changing that.”
These new resources are just one more way Sesame Workshop has been helping families over the last few years, including its meditation and mindfulness shorts for kids and its racial literacy resources for families.
For more information about the new resources for children on the spectrum, visit sesamestreet.org/autism, or follow Sesame Workshop on Facebook or Instagram.
Main image: Screenshot from Backyard Camping by Sesame Workshop and Exceptional Minds