CREATING ACTIVITIES USING PUPPETS TO PROMOTE LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL INTERACTIONS FOR CHILDREN OF 4-TO-5 YEARS OLD WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS

Puppets have been one of teaching resources to develop language and social interactions for children including children with special needs. This paper explores how puppets can be used in activities to promote language skills and social interactions for 4-to- 5 years old children with autism spectrum disorders. The article provides the implementation process including how to design puppets based on recycled materials, how to design a lesson plan using puppets, and technical suggestions for using puppet theatre when teaching children with autism spectrum disorders. The article also presents the experimental results of applying these in a typical case study of children with autism spectrum disorders aged 4-5. The initial outcomes have proved both theoretical and ractical effectiveness on these children, shown in the evaluation results in both quantitative and qualitative aspects. This is the basis for the researchers of this study to expand and transfer application results of applying puppet therapy to enhance language ability and social interaction for children with autism spectrum disorders in many other caring facilities for children at 4-5 years old with autism spectrum disorders

Systemic Puppet Therapy in Rehabilitation Practice

The concept of systemic puppet therapy proposed by the authors is described. Therapeutic work with puppets is a promising method of psychological assistance as part of rehabilitation processes. Its insufficient use is due to its low structurality. The phased application of morphological analysis and synthesis made it possible to streamline the known and develop new effective methods of puppet therapy. The proposed systemic puppet therapy is an ordered polymodal set of static (lining on the table or on the floor of a puppet arranged set) and dynamic (presenting history on behalf of the puppet or staging a performance) methods, individual and group methods, face-to-face and remote forms of work, algorithms for their choice.The size, material and design of puppets, quantitative and qualitative composition of their therapeutic set are justified. Methods of puppet therapy of different degree of structuring and depth of exposure for patients with different level of intelligence are described, including category and scope of application of the technique, instructions to the patient, plan of results discussion,transformation procedure providing therapeutic effect. Implementing a polymodal approach, after working with puppets, patients painted, composed and analysed works of literature andart. The field of puppet therapy intersected with the fields of drama-, mask- and art therapy, body-oriented and verbal therapy, psychodrama and system arrangements. Puppet therapy content included work with feelings and emotions, with the process of communication and social roles, with verbal and non-verbal diagnostics and self-diagnostics, with personal features and a system of relationships,with values and needs, with existential problems of patients. Systemic puppet therapy is applicable to a wide range of nosological categories, therapeutic situations, physical condition, intellectual level, gender and age characteristics of patients.The conditions and examples of application of techniques in the National Medical Research Centre of Rehabilitation and Balneology with the tasks of correcting unproductive attitudes and the system of patient relations, correcting perceptions of oneself; capacity-building and resource search; development of a compliance installation and active participation in rehabilitation are given.

Puppet theatre: A way to tell what cannot be told and to face pain

Processes of artistic reparation and memory recovery are spaces created for victims of state terrorism and family members of the disappeared in the context of the military dictatorship in Chile (1973‐90). Puppet therapy was utilized as a methodology by the company Puppets in Transit with participants drawn from Integrated Health Services in Chile in relation to reparation projects. This process of intervention with puppets seeks to restore social bonds, to enable an intergenerational dialogue and to transmit fragmented memory. The puppet, an expressive, symbolic and mediating object, stimulates a collective dialogue to create collective performance related to participants’ memories. All those mentioned in this article have given permission for their stories to be mentioned; we use only first names.

Psychological correctional work with employees of the internal affairs bodies based on metaphorical associative maps

The article deals with the problem of transition to a higher level of psychological work in the internal affairs bodies, by narrowing and concretizing the existing knowledge regarding psychocorrectional methods used by departmental psychologists. The use of metaphorical associative tools in psychological correction: metaphorical associative cards, metaphorical dolls (puppet therapy), fairy tale therapy, sand therapy, phototherapy, which can significantly increase the interest of internal affairs personnel in seeking help from a psychologist. According to the included observation, as a result of the application of the method of associative metaphorical cards, there is a positive dynamic in the relationship of police officers in the unit according to the following indicators: empathy, acceptance of others, group cohesion, emotional attachment to the group, tolerance.

Lėlių teatro technikų taikymo ergoterapeuto darbe patyrimas

The article acquaints with the practice of creating textile puppets, purposefully used at the work of occupation therapist. It is one of the application technique of puppet therapy. The work is based on the experience of extramural students of Continuing Studies Institute of Klaipeda University while doing assignments on intern-ship locations for the subject of expressive psychotherapy method. The analysis of the works observing and comparing how creation of textile puppets impact the state of patients during the process of rehabilitation, completed by the students of occupation therapy, is presented.The creation of a puppet as a spiritualized object from the textile materials helps to enter into and maintain long-term contact with a patient. This activity stimulates emotions, grants the possibility to a patient to express oneself, enter into conversation, and the occupation therapist receives delicate information about the patient‘s condition. Creation of puppets together with patients helped students to maintain humane relations, to perceive them deeper, and experience new emotions out of this experience. The stronger motivation to achieve the goal was observed when the puppet, created and produced by the patient, was dedicated to another person. The students of the occupation therapy program were convinced practically that by involving creative activity while creating a spiritualized object, a puppet, it is effective to maintain relation with a person. They enriched the skills for the use of occupation therapy methods and means.