It can be hard for kids in traditional talking-listening therapy. Many times kids will just sit back and say what they believe the therapist wants to hear. Throw a puppet into the mix and that all changes. When an adult speaks to a child through a puppet, the child usually becomes immediately engaged in the conversation. By using a puppet, the adult is forced to think more like a child it brings the conversation up to the child s level of play, Everett explains.
Puppets help to tell a child s story.
The new Trusty puppet became so popular with the kids that KidsPeace Hospital soon provided all children from the ages of 3 to 13 with a Trusty puppet of their own theirs to keep throughout their stay at KidsPeace and beyond. Once Trusty was firmly established as a valuable therapeutic tool, the groundwork was laid to generate more puppets to serve other therapeutic needs. Because so much can be learned about a child simply by his or her choice of puppet, KidsPeace wanted to develop a proprietary therapeutic puppet kit that could provide children with the tools necessary to explore a wide range of emotions and situations. Inspiration came as it always does at KidsPeace from the kids themselves. We wanted kids to be able to expand their imaginative boundaries, to push beyond the limitations that crisis had placed on them, said O Connor.