At first glance it looks like your typical Sesame Street episode. Elmo, Rosita, Zoe… the gang’s all there, but the topic covered on Sesame Workshop’s latest DVD strays from ones that are covered on traditional shows. The characters are not learning their ABCs and 123s, rather the furry friends are learning how to get in touch with their feelings.
It sounds great, but don’t look for the new DVD at your local toy store. Sesame Workshop is not mass marketing this production; rather it will be distributed exclusively to military families. That’s because the episode featuring Elmo and Rosita is designed to help injured veterans talk about their disabilities with their children.
Last year, Sesame Workshop produced a popular DVD aimed at helping military families discuss the strain of deployments. The DVD was such a hit that veterans asked the workshop to create another to help children of the roughly 18,000 military personnel in Iraq or Afghanistan who have been wounded or injured seriously enough to be evacuated.
In the episode Rosita tells Elmo she is upset because her father has returned home in a wheelchair. She angrily refers to the wheelchair as “that thing” and laments about not having a “regular” daddy who can dance to salsa music and kick a ball. With help from Elmo, Rosita finds the courage to talk with her parents about how she is feeling.
“Sometimes I feel a little sad, because things are so different now,” Rosita says during a family outing to the park. “I wish your legs were OK, Papi, and I wish you didn’t have to go to the doctor so much. And I just wish things could go back to the way they were!”
The DVD ends with Rosita’s father telling her that although parts of his body may have changed, his love for her hasn’t. He then persuades her to hop on the back of his wheelchair so the two can try a new kind of dancing.
The yet-to-be-released DVD is already getting high marks from military officials. One injured veteran said the production did a good job stressing the importance of families finding new activities to do together after a parent is injured.
Executives at Sesame Workshop said their goal in making the new DVD was to try to model behavior and provide the vocabulary for parents who need help dealing with the aftermath of war injuries and the tough-to-teach issues that stem from them. Critics say Sesame producers succeeded. They add that the new DVD strikes the right balance by showing military families how to talk openly about their new situations without frightening youngsters.
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