More About Hand Puppets, Their History and Uses

Hand puppets have been at the heart of world cultures for centuries as a visual metaphor, being one step removed from the real world but able to represent real life, they are, therefore, the perfect vehicle to communicate cultural heritage, spiritual messages or community issues … and are still as effective in the world today as they have been in the past.

Used in this way, by storytellers of third world cultures passing on cultural heritage to all in the community, hand puppets are a powerful tool, but they hold a special key when used to engage with young minds; here they have an exceptionally strong appeal for children … wherever they are, from whatever culture.

Children will happily loose themselves in the world of the hand puppet, a world of make-believe. Here they will model their play on adult life and behaviour and will remain absorbed under the spell of the puppet world. This is where, with care, the adult is able to create a conduit for communication on terms and in ways that are readily acceptable to a child’s mind, making them a major and important tool for all professionals with a child-centred role.
Methods of use will vary, as will the style or type of puppet, depending on the child and the objective of the professional, e.g., directive and non-directive approaches when used as a tool for therapy. For teachers, using hand puppets as an educational tool, developing the relationship of the puppet as an extension to the class, where it forms a fallible character as an integrated part of the lesson, might be a useful teaching method. Able to make mistakes and be corrected by the children it adds concentration and involvement, creating an environment where they can express themselves more freely and with greater enthusiasm.

Play is a fundamental element of building social and cognitive skills in all mammalian creatures. This facet of developmental behaviour is fundamental to the earliest stages of learning and never more important, or more refined, than in the human species, where social interaction and sophistication of oral communication is most advanced … an active imagination is at the heart of that development. John E. Lennon and Paul Barbato’s thesis on, ‘The Emotions: A Vocabulary Before Language,’ draws on the direct links between the emotions and learning in general, and language in particular, stating that … “attempts to acquire a language are significantly enhanced by the presence of an active imagination.”

Lennon and Babarto’s thesis goes on to suggest, “…that analysis provides the fragments of deconstructed concepts that imagination can re-integrate into new entities.” Einstein was famous for his statements, “I rarely think in words” and “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Stimulation of the imagination, through the use of hand puppets and play therapy, can only benefit the process of facilitating and improving the capacity of children to deconstruct and reconstruct information in different forms, for the application of solving new problems.

Larisa Wallace’s findings in her study, “Relations Between The Use Of Puppetry In The Classroom, Student Attention And Student Involvement,” goes on to relate the correlation between, “The use of puppets as a teaching tool in the classroom and attention.” and “…the use of puppets in the classroom indirectly influences student involvement through student attention.” She goes on to show that student involvement is influenced through attentiveness. Hand puppets have been shown to increase the attention span of children and through this facilitate increased enthusiasm and better involvement in the learning process.

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