Helping Special Populations with Puppetry

Last week, a group of roving caregivers attended two training workshops to learn how to use puppetry in childhood simulation, as well as educational and therapy work. Mexican Puppeteer Raquel Robles Pacheco trained the care givers how to use the puppets to communicate in the counseling of children. The initiative was sponsored by ICA via the Expressive Arts Education. The program officially closed today with a small demonstration. Pacheco explained how the caregivers use the puppets to reach out children and why it is an effective tool.

Raquel Robles Pacheco

Raquel Robles Pacheco, Puppeteer/Theater Teacher

“The rovers and I have been in training for two weeks and I have taught the rovers how to make puppets and we have taught them how to work with these puppets with the children to enhance their development; we have taught them how to easily use them. They are not just useful for the rovers, but people who work in the field of psychology can use them, as well as teachers who work in Kindergarten or in pre-school. The teachers can teach them the different parts of the body; take for example the arms, the hands, the feet, the legs, the face. They can also teach them what parts persons or people can see from us; take for example, they can see our arms, our feet, our face, but they shouldn’t be seeing our chest areas or our private areas.   We have also taught them how to say no; how to have children to say no to something they don’t want; for example if a parent give a child a kiss on the cheek and if they are okay with that then it is fine as parents, but if a stranger comes and kiss them they have the right to say no.   It is easier for a child to speak to a puppet than speaking to an adult; so that child will open up to a puppet and tell that puppet what happened to him or her.”