Daniel Tiger welcomes new autistic character to the Neighborhood
March 12, 2021 5:12 PM Subscribe
Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, a popular PBS Kids series is introducing Max, Teacher Harriet's autistic nephew. Max is voiced by a 13-year-old autistic boy, Israel Thomas-Bruce, and will make his debut in April.
"We're so excited to introduce Max to the Neighborhood of Make-Believe and help even more kids feel represented and included on TV. It's also important for young viewers to understand that some friends have different needs and may learn, play and communicate in their own ways," Chris Loggins, supervising producer, tells PEOPLE magazine. It was of "utmost importance" to cast an autistic voice actor for Max.
Check out this clip of the upcoming episode.
"We're so excited to introduce Max to the Neighborhood of Make-Believe and help even more kids feel represented and included on TV. It's also important for young viewers to understand that some friends have different needs and may learn, play and communicate in their own ways," Chris Loggins, supervising producer, tells PEOPLE magazine. It was of "utmost importance" to cast an autistic voice actor for Max.
Check out this clip of the upcoming episode.
It's good to see the legacy that Fred Rogers left being carried on.
posted by NoxAeternum at 5:21 PM on March 12, 2021 [26 favorites]
posted by NoxAeternum at 5:21 PM on March 12, 2021 [26 favorites]
Republicans seem to be very agitated about cartoon characters lately, I hope they leave this one alone
posted by benzenedream at 5:27 PM on March 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by benzenedream at 5:27 PM on March 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
Daniel Tiger is a modern take on Fred Roger's work. The pace of the show is much more tied to emotional maturity and learning to navigate age appropriate stresses than other shows. I have to say, I'm sad that both my kids are a little too old for this now to really enjoy this introduction because - its the closest thing to revisiting that part of childhood where getting to watch Mr. Roger's Neighborhood was a thing.
So yeah. Forwarded on to two of our friends that have age appropriate kids!
The songs from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood are *almost* as good as Dinosaur Train's 'Every Dinosaur Poops'.
posted by Nanukthedog at 5:30 PM on March 12, 2021 [9 favorites]
So yeah. Forwarded on to two of our friends that have age appropriate kids!
The songs from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood are *almost* as good as Dinosaur Train's 'Every Dinosaur Poops'.
posted by Nanukthedog at 5:30 PM on March 12, 2021 [9 favorites]
What a big deal to not only make the smart move and do this but have the voice be someone who is autistic. No reason not to, plenty of reasons why it is the right choice. Thanks for sharing this.
posted by jessamyn at 5:46 PM on March 12, 2021 [13 favorites]
posted by jessamyn at 5:46 PM on March 12, 2021 [13 favorites]
Someday, having non-autistic actors portray autistic characters is going to be thought of in the same way that blackface is thought of today. Good for them for doing the right thing.
posted by heatherlogan at 6:40 PM on March 12, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by heatherlogan at 6:40 PM on March 12, 2021 [8 favorites]
Two of my kids are in in the key Daniel Tiger demo and honestly it's the best kid's show I've seen as a parent of ten years. It has helped both kids understand their emotions and think about other people in a way that is easy for them to understand.
There are also a lot of songs that are really helpful that everyone in the family sings to help the little ones get along better. "You can take a turn and then I get it back" is like, a magical incantation we can sing to get our 3yo to share toys as needed and "Grow-ow-own ups come back" settles her down when one of the parents has to leave the house for an extended amount of time. I don't want to oversell it because it's still just a TV show but it has been a great way to help us impart a lot of valuable communication skills to an age group that is often really hard to reach in that way.
posted by Tevin at 7:17 PM on March 12, 2021 [16 favorites]
There are also a lot of songs that are really helpful that everyone in the family sings to help the little ones get along better. "You can take a turn and then I get it back" is like, a magical incantation we can sing to get our 3yo to share toys as needed and "Grow-ow-own ups come back" settles her down when one of the parents has to leave the house for an extended amount of time. I don't want to oversell it because it's still just a TV show but it has been a great way to help us impart a lot of valuable communication skills to an age group that is often really hard to reach in that way.
posted by Tevin at 7:17 PM on March 12, 2021 [16 favorites]
I cannot thank the creators of Daniel Tiger enough this show is amazing. My five year old loves it. It gives him tools in his tool box to talk about and navigate emotions where he would otherwise overload and shut down, being the highly sensitive kid that he is. The show is emotionally honest (see the episode where he trucks sand all over the house and his mom gets mad and gives herself a minute to calm down). We love love love Daniel Tiger and as a parent I am beyond grateful to this program for giving us a common language to work with.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:25 PM on March 12, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 7:25 PM on March 12, 2021 [4 favorites]
Glad I wasn't put on the air as an autistic example, I'll just say that.? This is a cartoon TV show: the character is fictional. And the voice actor is an actor, just like all the other voice actors on the show. Who is being put on the air as an autistic example?
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:34 PM on March 12, 2021 [2 favorites]
But I nearly started crying at that clip…
Right there with you.
posted by bixfrankonis at 7:59 PM on March 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
Right there with you.
posted by bixfrankonis at 7:59 PM on March 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
As the parent of a child on the spectrum, the introduction of autistic characters to high-quality children's media -- Julia on Sesame Street, Theo on Thomas -- is very, very helpful in helping siblings, cousins, and classmates understand some of the different ways in which children on the spectrum may understand and interact with the world. It's hard for a 3-year-old to understand why a much-loved sibling or cousin isn't playing in the way they want them to! It's wonderful to have a toolbox in language they can understand, with examples to point to.
Kids notice pretty young that another kid reacts differently than most kids to stimuli, and they very often ask overt questions about it. Being able to point to characters like Julia and Max frequently means I see a light bulb go on over a 3-year-old's head, because this is a thing they've learned about from a show, so it's easier for them to understand what's happening. And they've seen the neurotypical show characters rehearse how to interact more constructively with neurodivergent characters, so they're pretty quick to adjust their own interaction strategy. Just like neurodivergent kids have for years watched neurotypical children on children's media to learn from their interactions.
Honestly, we deal with auditory processing being a bit slower -- delayed answers to questions, because there's so much going on in my kid's busy brain that we have to wait for the question to get in there, land, wait its turn, and percolate back out as an answer -- and I've explained that to other parents sometimes and had them say, "Oh! I saw that on Sesame Street!" since Julia came on the scene, and I just have to do a lot less explaining than I used to, because even adults are seeing the examples in children's media and learning from them, and immediately understand that it's totally normal to have to wait a couple extra beats for a kid to answer a question, and it doesn't mean the kid isn't listening.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:27 PM on March 12, 2021 [35 favorites]
Kids notice pretty young that another kid reacts differently than most kids to stimuli, and they very often ask overt questions about it. Being able to point to characters like Julia and Max frequently means I see a light bulb go on over a 3-year-old's head, because this is a thing they've learned about from a show, so it's easier for them to understand what's happening. And they've seen the neurotypical show characters rehearse how to interact more constructively with neurodivergent characters, so they're pretty quick to adjust their own interaction strategy. Just like neurodivergent kids have for years watched neurotypical children on children's media to learn from their interactions.
Honestly, we deal with auditory processing being a bit slower -- delayed answers to questions, because there's so much going on in my kid's busy brain that we have to wait for the question to get in there, land, wait its turn, and percolate back out as an answer -- and I've explained that to other parents sometimes and had them say, "Oh! I saw that on Sesame Street!" since Julia came on the scene, and I just have to do a lot less explaining than I used to, because even adults are seeing the examples in children's media and learning from them, and immediately understand that it's totally normal to have to wait a couple extra beats for a kid to answer a question, and it doesn't mean the kid isn't listening.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:27 PM on March 12, 2021 [35 favorites]
Just going to do a plug for Pablo, a lovely preschooler show with an all-autistic cast. My four year old loves it.
posted by tinkletown at 2:03 AM on March 13, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by tinkletown at 2:03 AM on March 13, 2021 [1 favorite]
I know some people who work on the show. I might share some of your comments with them, since it's always nice to hear that the work you're doing is making a positive impact.
MeMail me if you'd rather I *not* share your comment.
posted by clawsoon at 4:02 AM on March 13, 2021 [6 favorites]
MeMail me if you'd rather I *not* share your comment.
posted by clawsoon at 4:02 AM on March 13, 2021 [6 favorites]
That clip is lovely and helpful and was a wonderful way to start my day. Thanks for sharing.
posted by bookmammal at 6:18 AM on March 13, 2021
posted by bookmammal at 6:18 AM on March 13, 2021
I recently turned 50, so I grew up with Mister Rogers. Even when I was "too old" for his show, I remember a turbulent family time in my early teens when I would wake up early on Sundays to watch reruns of his show by myself, in peace and quiet, before the rest of the house was awake. It was a personal experience for me that was really calming and deeply satisfying for me. Fred Rogers had a big impact on my life.
Though I was dimly aware that this Daniel Tiger show existed, I'm glad to read here that it's in the same tradition of the old Neighborhood production.
posted by SoberHighland at 6:25 AM on March 13, 2021 [7 favorites]
Though I was dimly aware that this Daniel Tiger show existed, I'm glad to read here that it's in the same tradition of the old Neighborhood production.
posted by SoberHighland at 6:25 AM on March 13, 2021 [7 favorites]
The 13 year-old named in the post and the article. Who now, if you Google his name, the results are this. I'm glad that didn't happen to me.
Do you see this as a different concern to that which one might have about any child actor? There are certainly concerns about any child being put into the public sphere, and I think careful thought about how this is done is essential. These include at least some loss of privacy, as you note, and (for those who are members of marginalised groups in particular) a frequent burden of expectation to act as an "example to others". There are some genuinely difficult issues about what we expect of people in certain jobs, and these are considerably complicated when we're taking about children's labour.
However, at the same time, if we're going to have drama, we need actors, and drama, to reflect the world, needs to feature children as characters, which requires at least some child actors. Fundamentally, I think the challenges that arise from this are of the same type, whether or not a child actor is a member of a marginalised group. At the same time, I do recognise that living in an ableist (as well as multifariously oppressive and marginalising) society raises particular issues that need to be satisfactorily addressed by parents and employers when supporting a disabled child actor in making the decision to take on a role. However, it's also absolutely vital that the need to address these questions is not allowed to be an excuse for denying disabled and otherwise marginalised people work and representation. An autistic actor is qualified to play an autistic character in a way that someone who is not autistic cannot be, and this needs to be reflected in casting.
There are also writing decisions that are relevant to the character, if not necessarily directly to the actor. If we didn't live in an ableist world, it's unlikely that one would write a story, even for a children's show so focused on personal and ethical learning, so explicitly aimed at the difference between an autistic character and a neurotypical character, or on ways of addressing this. In a better world we'd simply be able to have autistic characters whose particular experiences form part of the range of human experience represented, and even in this world, it's necessary for representation to include that as well as teaching moments like the one shown. But I don't know how we get to that world without explicit teaching and argument. We still live in a world that tells many (most, in fact, although to varying degrees and in varying ways) people that our experience of reality is in some way or other invalid, and stories that intentionally set out to state the opposite seem like they're still needed.
Thinking through the various challenges and questions above, I don't think that a child being publicly identified as an autistic actor playing and autistic role is necessarily equivalent to being put up as an autistic example. I think it may amount to that in some circumstances, but whether it actually does this very much depends on specifics. What I've seen here doesn't make me believe that this is a case where that is happening or likely to happen. Are there things you identify which make you think that view is inaccurate? If so, I would value your assessment. Providing proper representation of human diversity well and nonexploitatively is genuinely complex in the societies we inhabit, and a variety of perspectives is vital to ongoing efforts to do so.
posted by howfar at 7:31 AM on March 13, 2021 [14 favorites]
Do you see this as a different concern to that which one might have about any child actor? There are certainly concerns about any child being put into the public sphere, and I think careful thought about how this is done is essential. These include at least some loss of privacy, as you note, and (for those who are members of marginalised groups in particular) a frequent burden of expectation to act as an "example to others". There are some genuinely difficult issues about what we expect of people in certain jobs, and these are considerably complicated when we're taking about children's labour.
However, at the same time, if we're going to have drama, we need actors, and drama, to reflect the world, needs to feature children as characters, which requires at least some child actors. Fundamentally, I think the challenges that arise from this are of the same type, whether or not a child actor is a member of a marginalised group. At the same time, I do recognise that living in an ableist (as well as multifariously oppressive and marginalising) society raises particular issues that need to be satisfactorily addressed by parents and employers when supporting a disabled child actor in making the decision to take on a role. However, it's also absolutely vital that the need to address these questions is not allowed to be an excuse for denying disabled and otherwise marginalised people work and representation. An autistic actor is qualified to play an autistic character in a way that someone who is not autistic cannot be, and this needs to be reflected in casting.
There are also writing decisions that are relevant to the character, if not necessarily directly to the actor. If we didn't live in an ableist world, it's unlikely that one would write a story, even for a children's show so focused on personal and ethical learning, so explicitly aimed at the difference between an autistic character and a neurotypical character, or on ways of addressing this. In a better world we'd simply be able to have autistic characters whose particular experiences form part of the range of human experience represented, and even in this world, it's necessary for representation to include that as well as teaching moments like the one shown. But I don't know how we get to that world without explicit teaching and argument. We still live in a world that tells many (most, in fact, although to varying degrees and in varying ways) people that our experience of reality is in some way or other invalid, and stories that intentionally set out to state the opposite seem like they're still needed.
Thinking through the various challenges and questions above, I don't think that a child being publicly identified as an autistic actor playing and autistic role is necessarily equivalent to being put up as an autistic example. I think it may amount to that in some circumstances, but whether it actually does this very much depends on specifics. What I've seen here doesn't make me believe that this is a case where that is happening or likely to happen. Are there things you identify which make you think that view is inaccurate? If so, I would value your assessment. Providing proper representation of human diversity well and nonexploitatively is genuinely complex in the societies we inhabit, and a variety of perspectives is vital to ongoing efforts to do so.
posted by howfar at 7:31 AM on March 13, 2021 [14 favorites]
This is excellent to see. I just wish it were more common across all media. The disabled have always been with us, and yet society seems determined to conceal that fact behind outdated tropes and actors playing roles that should go to members of the communities in question.
posted by Alensin at 7:49 AM on March 13, 2021
posted by Alensin at 7:49 AM on March 13, 2021
The songs from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood are *almost* as good as Dinosaur Train's 'Every Dinosaur Poops'.
The couplets and songs in Daniel Tiger are so key. There are these couplets that are used throughout a season, and that recur throughput the episodes, and then they each culminate into a full song, one per episode. Such great use of kids' natural musicality toward empathy and emotional maturity.
Hard to explain, perhaps, but the couplets have become part of my parenting toolbox during routine kid conflicts. As a parent, I definitely feel like the Daniel Tiger writers are on my team. So it s wonderful to see this "empathy toolkit" expanded to include this part of our community.
posted by eustatic at 12:13 PM on March 13, 2021 [2 favorites]
The couplets and songs in Daniel Tiger are so key. There are these couplets that are used throughout a season, and that recur throughput the episodes, and then they each culminate into a full song, one per episode. Such great use of kids' natural musicality toward empathy and emotional maturity.
Hard to explain, perhaps, but the couplets have become part of my parenting toolbox during routine kid conflicts. As a parent, I definitely feel like the Daniel Tiger writers are on my team. So it s wonderful to see this "empathy toolkit" expanded to include this part of our community.
posted by eustatic at 12:13 PM on March 13, 2021 [2 favorites]
Also, the characters often song off key and off beat. Not enough to be annoying, but enough that it stays fun.
posted by eustatic at 12:15 PM on March 13, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by eustatic at 12:15 PM on March 13, 2021 [1 favorite]
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