The use of puppets in reading literary works in children with mental disabillities

The main focus of my final thesis is presenting different challenges that every special educational needs teacher faces when discussing literary works with children with intellectual disabilities. Firstly, individual categories of children with special educational needs within our target group are identified. We then look into psychological processes that influence the perception of literary works and issues that children with intellectual disabilities face in relation to these processes. The chapter about puppets addresses puppet therapy, different types of puppets and their use. We then focus on the use of puppets with children with special educational needs and the aid puppets provide when developing communication and other skills. The research first turns its focus to a class of children in the first grade of the special educational program and their main challenges and abilities. Most children with intellectual disabilities display more than one sign of disability. This means that in addition to a general delayed development these children may also have to face problems when communicating or with their motor and sensory skills. In addition to these, children may often be demotivated when it comes to schoolwork and if they have problems memorizing, focusing and imagining, it is not hard to comprehend that children with special educational needs may have difficulties when faced with literary works. Puppets appear to be exceptional motivators with their cuteness and fresh energy which they bring into the classroom when introduced. We tried to establish how puppets affect the perception of literary works of children with special educational needs. We were primarily interested in the extent puppets motivate children to attentively listen to literary works, whether we can observe an improvement in children memorizing the storyline and whether they are able to detect the puppet’s character. We were also interested in whether children would bring themselves and the puppet into the story and try to enact a story themselves