ABSTRACT
Younger children often can be engaged to utilize puppets for storytelling, and therapists or caring adults can transcribe the story enacted. Simple puppets can be constructed by having children sketch images of family members or other figures, cut them out with child-safe scissors, and tape the images to a piece of folded cardboard, such as the back of a legal pad, cut to match the size of children’s drawings and folded along two vertical lines approximately an inch from the left and right edges to form a U shape that can hold up children’s drawings. The result can be a group of puppet figures that children own and with which they can play out stories from their own experience. Children can change their stories as they develop broader perspectives about family members and other important people in their lives. Desensitization exercises and activities designed to boost self-esteem help children reduce the power and intensity of frightening images while increasing the size, power, and strength of pictures of themselves, caring family members, and other positive people in their lives.
