Date: 2008-04-30
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

on the children. And children have to deal again with dad or mom away for extended periods. You mentioned the Lopez family. Or the problens may really begin when dad or mom come comes back. amputated legs. spinal cord injuries. posttraumatic stress disorder. Now. this is something that our VA or DOD or administration ought to be worried about. and yet it was left to the private sector to figure out. what do we tell our children? How do we answer something at an ageappropriate level? And I want to thank the Sesame Street Workshop who produces Sesame Street. the nonprofit educational organization. for its leadership. As you mentioned. there are hundreds and thousands of children of military families who are impacted every day by the deployment of one or both of their parents. They responded to this 2 years ago by making an outreach tool to help families and their young children cope with the challenges of deployment: A DVD featuring Elmo who struggles with military deployment of his father. and urges his viewers to share their emotions and fears directly with their parents. After watching this video together. families have found a new opportuiity to talk with their children and communicate together as a family. Here is the first DVD that Sesame Street did under a Talk. Listen. and Connect -series. -Helping Families During Military Deployment. and also in Spanish. Partides Militares Bienvenidos Cambios. And that was distributed with the help of the military and the help of the VA to hundreds of thousands of young people. Just yesterday. Sesame Street launched a new DVD. a new series called Deployments. Homecoming. and Changes. And that addresses the level of anxiety children may experience after multiple deployments. as well as to help young children gain an ageappropriate understanding of a parents combatrelated health condition so the family can heal together. The DVD features again Elmo and Rosita. and intersperses . the Muppets with real families likethe Lopez family that you showed us earlier. They are meant for children. but spouses and friends and relatives facing a complicated transition of multiple deployments or the physical and psychological wounds. I invite. by the way. all Members of the House of Representatives to meet Elmo and the Cookie Monster next Wednesday on May 7. at 4:00. at HC5. Sesame Street will bring Elmo and the Cookie Monster. You cah take pictures with him or her. I am not sure. and pick up a copy of this DVD. It will be distributed free to military families all over the Nation. I hope every one of our colleagues picks up a copy. watches it. and helps distribute it in their own districts. This is an important tool that was produced for us by people who care about what is going on. And I will tell you. we are now in the Month of the Military Child. We want to honor the children of military families. But we have now a tool to reach children. This is aimed at very young children below the age of five. And if they watch what is going on. again. I have seen some of the previews. One of the children of a parent with a prosthetic leg was shown bringing the leg to dad to try to make that situation sort of natural and a part of life and not something to be ashamed of or to fear. And so Sesame Street uses the power of video to connect with soldiers and their faMilies and of course the children. You can watch the video yourself. Go to sesameworkshop.org/tlc for Talk. Listen. and Connect. Hablen. Escuchen. Conecten. at sesameworkshop.org/tlc. and you can see that and watch it for yourself. I would just like to say to my colleague from San Antonio. who is a psychologist and has dealt with children in his professional life and is a great aid on our veterans committee for issues of mental health and the issues we are talking about today. we thank you for your leadership. Mr.