For many children, puppets and props open up a new world of communication that supports the acquisition of language skills. In fact, puppets are used for the therapeutic purpose to support the communication and development of children with disabilities. Children learn to converse and formulate their thoughts and words to best convey their message. One very effective way to develop children’s language skills with puppets is to role-play to model oral language. This might mean modeling correct sentence structure or introducing new vocabulary into the conversation.
Puppets provide a sense of security that makes it easier for children to express thoughts and feelings that they might not otherwise feel comfortable sharing. Talking through a puppet allows children to explore feelings freely and reenact situations in a way that they are familiar with. For example, when children are asked to role-play a disagreement between friends, they are going to present the feelings and responses that they would feel if they were in the situation. This provides excellent opportunities for teaching positive social skills.
The process also allows children to develop empathy for others. When children are encouraged to take the role of others, they learn to empathize. This is very important in helping them experience compassion and respect for the feelings of other people.
It is also an important characteristic in the development of interpersonal intelligence, which is important in the learning process. Those who have strong interpersonal intelligence are good at understanding and interacting with other people and are able to assess the emotions, motivations, desires, and intentions of those around them. Fortunately, social intelligence can be developed, and puppets provide an excellent opportunity for exploring situations that help children learn empathy and interpersonal communication. It also supports the opportunity to teach positive social interactions, problem-solving, and other social/emotional skills.