(toskanews) – He has one pink spinner which clips onto your finger, helps reduce stress and improve concentration, as well as headphones on your ears with noise cancellation and a tablet with apps that facilitate everyday communication. Mattel he launched the Barbie with autismdeveloped in collaboration with ASAN (Autistic Self Advocacy Network), a non-profit organization that defends the rights of autistic people.
It is designed, explains the company, to “represent the ways in which autistic people live, process and communicate with the world around them”, and so that more and more children can “identify and become aware of Barbie”. It is part of the collection Fashionistaswhich includes Barbies of different ethnicities and physicalities and different conditions or disabilities. Among the most recent, the one with the type 1 diabetes.
His exit is already causing discussion. For the Dr. Stefania Stellinopresident of the National Association of Parents of People with Autism (ANGSA) Lazio, it is a reductive and dangerous operation, which in fact almost risks «create the monster». An attempt was made, he says, to represent an invisible disability. «We tried to put together as many characteristics of autism in a single doll, but this created the possibility of confusion, because a little girl who plays with that doll will expect all autistic people to have those characteristics, which is not the case. Sometimes trying to be inclusive and reduce distances can also produce the opposite effect. According to most people who experience autism every day, this type of representation will produce a lot of confusion in children who should instead learn to live with differences, accepting them, without labeling or stigmatizing certain behaviors.”
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