A safe and trusted friend for your child
Children like to play with puppets Through puppets they can express their perception of their environment, practice with language or new learning material, speaking skills, social skills, conflicts and push boundaries in a playful way. The puppet is experienced by children as a safe practice instrument; they can easily hide behind it and can make contact with others and the world around them through the puppet. But the hand puppet can be more than a toy for a child. A puppet can be a wonderful tool for you as a parent and educator also.
When you, as an adult, manage to hold the puppet’s magic, let him look through the child’s eyes and be the friend who is equal to the child, the child will react more freely, easier give answers and show sides of themselves that, for whatever reason, don’t show it so quickly.
The puppet can then help children to, for example, push boundaries and acquire new skills. But it also helps you to gain more insight into what is going on in your child. Especially because the puppet is experienced differently. The child don’t see the puppet as someone who expects something from him/her and if you manage to maintain this, you will experience that your role as a (grand) parent gets an extra dimension.
It just doesn’t happen all by itself. It starts with thinking about whatever you want to achieve and in which situations you want to use puppet. You can think of:
- Your child finds it difficult to connect with others.
- Your child has difficulty with independence.
- Your child is afraid to see a doctor, for example.
- Your child has difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep.
- Your child needs a lot of confirmation.
- Your child says little or nothing on his own.
- Your child is often arguing.
- Your child has difficulty with changes/new situations.
- Your child is bullied and withdraws into himself.
- Your child needs a ‘buddy’.
- Your child doesn’t really play.
- Etc.
In practice, it often turns out that a puppet, initially purchased for a child, quickly becomes part of the whole family. And that it’s not just the child who plays puppet A hand puppet at home can be an excellent tool to understand why a child does what it does and what it needs to change its behaviour.
