Making Puppets Talk: 3 Ways to Use Puppets to Build Communication

One of the agencies I consult to has group homes for adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.  One of the boys had been there for more than a year before I could talk to him enough to do a cursory assessment of his communication skills.

How did I finally connect with him?  A marionette. While he wasn’t willing to talk to me - or most people - he had a grand time conversing with the dog marionette I had brought.  

That was a few years ago, and, as far as I know, the marionette is still there.

While most of the students I work with are school aged, I have been seeing more and more 2-3 year olds for AAC evaluations; which makes me a very happy SLP. I love seeing children early; before they lose more ground in the language development arena.

While some children have a fear of puppets - and clowns and Disney characters in costume - many love them.  I have an assortment of animal puppets, and a few “people” puppets from an old Peabody Development Kit (which was new in 1971, but still has some uses).

Puppets can have conversations.  Teach the parts of a conversation, taking turns, asking and answering questions while your puppets are engaged in conversation.

Puppets can tell stories.  Teach the elements of stories, starting with the characters themselves.  Where will they go? What will they do? What will happen to them? How does it end?

Puppets can re-tell a story they’ve heard.  Carol Westby discusses how typical children learn elements of narratives when they “read” or tell stories they’ve heard to their dolls and stuffed animals.  Students who are nonverbal don’t get that practice unless we provide them with the tools for expression and the scaffolding they need. 

This oral-literate continuum helps to move children from early, emerging language skills where children talk about what they can see and feel and hear to language skills needed for literacy, where they understand a shared context between themselves and a story, and can use this knowledge for written language..

Academic success is dependent on students developing these literacy skills.

Find these great puppets - and some others - at the SpeechScience Shop.

 Carol Westby (1985) Learning to Talk—Talking to Learn: Oral literate language 

differences, in Simon, CS (Ed) Communication skills and classroom success: Therapy methodologies for language learning disabled students. College Hill , San Diego, pp 182-213