I remember when I was in undergrad in Speech Sciences my mom surprised me with a gift of finger puppets! She knew I wanted to be an SLP and she said that when she was out shopping and was looking at some finger puppets in a children's store a woman came up to her and shared how much she loved finger puppets for her work as an SLP. My mom was so excited hearing this and bought them for me to use - thanks mom! However, I remember when I first got them I thought that they were so cute and so fun looking but I wasn’t entirely sure how I could use them in therapy. Over the past couple of years I have come up with numerous usages for them; I will list 10 below.

Finger Puppets + Books. I often include finger puppets when reading books. For example, in the “Where’s Spot?” book I use a dog, a penguin, a crocodile and any other puppets I have that match the characters in the book. The child can hold the dog to help encourage them to participate more in the book reading. You can also hide matching puppets to the characters around the room and say something like, “I think I see another Penguin” to which they will have to follow your eye gaze to find the puppet (targeting gaze following). You can also target prepositions with books and puppets by saying, “Put the crocodile on top of the bed!”
Finger puppets + New play mate. I like using finger puppets to add another person to a game or activity. This helps the child feel as though they aren’t the only one playing or working on something. For example, if we are playing caribou and working on sounds we can give a turn to a finger puppet.
Finger puppets + Breaking the Ice. Sometimes children can feel unsure when first beginning therapy as it is an entirely new experience and environment. Therefore, introducing the child to a finger puppet who maybe is also new to therapy and to the room could help them gain some feelings of comfort and safety. For example, you could introduce a puppet to the child and say, “This is Sam. It’s his first time here too. He is feeling unsure. Maybe you could help him feel better by playing with him.” This can help encourage the child who is feeling apprehensive to join in on the activities.
Finger puppets + Turn Taking. If a child is working on a goal of turn taking but there isn’t enough people in the session to work on this goal then adding a puppet can be really helpful. For example, you, the child, their parent and the puppet can all take turns while playing a game.
Finger puppets + Pretend play character. If a child is working on their pretend play skills adding a puppet in that is new to the theme or is unexpected it might help them to adapt to new situations in pretend play. For example, if a child always plays pretend in one theme of paw patrol you could introduce a penguin and hopefully the child will learn to adapt to new characters and themes with use of this.
Finger puppets + Singing songs. When singing songs having a puppet singing along can be really fun and silly for children. They can take turns holding the puppets and having the puppets sing too.
Finger puppets + Animal sounds. When working at the sound level with children having a puppet make a sound can help the child practice the sound. For example, “The snake says ___” and the child will fill in /s/.
Finger puppets + Hide and seek. Playing hide and seek with puppets is great because it extends the length of the game since there is more time finding. This can be a great way to target prepositions. For example, when the child finds a puppet they can say where the puppet was hiding (e.g. on top of the shelf, behind the chair etc.).
Finger puppets + Generalization. E.g.: Pronoun generalization and understanding can be challenging for some children, especially when there are only a few people in the session. Therefore, adding puppets in the activity to help model accurate pronoun usage can be really helpful. For example, the puppets can take turns saying “my turn” or “your turn.”
Finger puppets + Perspective taking. If children are working on understanding others perspectives, then puppets can be added to aid in this goal. For example, a puppet can share that maybe they want to read a different book than the child, or maybe they want to have one more turn before the game ends.

Find some finger puppets on amazon.ca by clicking here or amazon.com by clicking here.

Did you read my post on the Fun Quotient (FQ)? My goal in therapy is always to increase my FQ. Children learn better when they are having fun and playing. My FQ in sessions can’t help but be high when I am adding cute and silly puppets in the mix!

What other ways do you use finger puppets?!

-S

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