Learning Through Play: Using Puppets to Help Build Confidence

One of our goals as parents, guardians and teachers is to help our children develop socially and instill in them the confidence necessary for social interaction. For some children, social interaction can be an exhausting task. We, the parents and adults in the lives of shy children, do everything we can to improve the self-esteem, self-confidence, and social skills of our shy children. We often turn to team sports, camps, drama classes, and the like for that purpose, all for good reason. However, these kinds of efforts can be supplemented by efforts closer to home. In fact, it is within our own playrooms that the lessons in social interaction and self-confidence begin. Many types of games help bring children out of their shells. One of these forms of play is puppetry.

Puppet play allows children to engage in the art of storytelling and acting, which is both a social skill and a creative skill. By telling a story through puppetry, a child can increase their comfort level by using her voice and having attention focused on them. In other words, they increase their comfort level as speakers, but they can do it behind the safety of their puppets or puppet theater. Also, since storytelling is part of much of our social interaction (whether it’s telling stories about our day or recounting something we read about, etc.), storytelling through puppetry provides children with an excellent way to practice this social skill as well.

One recommendation to get a child interested in the storytelling aspect of puppetry, as well as to give them the initial confidence when dabbling in this style of play, is to get them a set of puppets from a family story. You can often find puppet sets to retell any number of classic fairy tales or fables (such as Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, etc.). Starting by retelling a familiar story helps take pressure off your child about what to say or what will happen next, giving them a safe way to practice storytelling and gain confidence in speaking.

Once they feel more comfortable, the child can use the same characters to tell new adventures and new stories using their own words and ideas. Generating original material is another social skill and sometimes a social stressor for children. Sometimes kids are afraid of social interaction because they just don’t know what to say, or their own words don’t seem to get through to them. Puppets can give children the opportunity to practice telling their own stories, as well as simple stream of consciousness speaking using words, thoughts and feelings that are entirely their own. This in turn can make expressing your own thoughts or ideas in a social context a little less daunting.

Of course, puppet play doesn’t have to be a solitary game. Puppet play, by its very nature, is a social game that includes a speaker and an audience, just like many other social interactions. Additionally, the puppet play allows for the inclusion of more than one puppeteer/speaker, making it a great option for play dates. Perhaps with a little guidance from an adult, even a shy child on a playdate will find himself talking to his playmate while playing with puppets.

In many ways, a puppet in the hands of a child can be a passport to extroversion from introversion. Through puppetry, children can practice different personalities, different voices, and different approaches to social interaction, as well as find their own unique voice. Through this safe form of social practice, children can feel more confident and better prepared to speak when asked. Remember, we can also support our little ones in this adventure by joining the play, and of course, nothing helps build trust more than an enthusiastic and receptive audience.