Children Learn Better When Actively Engagement.
R.A. McWilliams

Puppets for babies are a wonderful way to help your baby learn language, motor development, and social and emotional development.

I introduced puppets to Evelyn as soon as she was ready for tummy time. She loves when we play with the puppets.

I will be sharing fun and simple activities that I have been doing with Evelyn with the puppets to support her learning.

You and your baby will have a fun time playing with the puppets.

Research Evidence – Puppets For Babies

Puppets as instructional tool have been shown to be effective in enhancing child interest and engagement (Gronna, Serna, Kennedy, & Prater, 1999; Shepherd & Koberstein, 1989; Silvern, Williamson, & Waters, 1983; Snart & Maguire, 1986; Turner, 2003; Webster-Stratton & Reid, 2003).)
Puppets shown to be effective technique for modeling a variety of age appropriate social-emotional concepts (Matson et al., 1991; Webster- Stratton & Reid, 2003).

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Why You should use puppets for babies?

Puppets can…

Increase children’s engagement
Motivate for oral language
Promote creativity
Build vocabulary
Model social and emotional skills

Activity for 0-3 Month baby

As your newborn baby grows, they will be more interested in the world around them. Hence, playing will become increasingly important as this is how babies learn and develop. By three months your baby will begin to turn their head, kick their legs, make eye contact and smile.

Activity: Follow the Puppet

Will Need: Puppet

(we purchased the Elephant Hand Puppet here from Amazon) or Simply make a fun hand puppet at home using a sock.

Objective: Child will use large muscles for movement.

Simply lay your baby on his/her back and sit at your baby’s feet. While holding the puppet speak or sing to your baby while holding the puppet to encourage baby to move his/her head.

Your baby will love to hear you sing, read or talk to him/her. The sound of your voice and using a puppet will certainly attract their attention.

Activity for 3-9 months

At this age your baby is not just a listener—he/she is a talker, too. At around 2–3 months, they use their voices to coo, laugh, and squeal and at around 3–4 months, babies will stay quiet while someone else is talking. They wait for silence, then babble, then wait for your response. This is perfect to start introducing puppets while singing, chanting, and speaking to your little one.

Your baby at 6-9 months, his/her expressive language skills are developing dramatically, making communication that much more fun and rewarding. Your baby may start to repeat sounds.

Activity: Finger Puppets Animal Sounds

Will Need: Animals finger puppets

(We purchased the 16PCS FINGER PUPPETS ANIMALS AND FAMILY MEMBERS from Amazon)

Objective: Child will use sounds, gestures, or facial expressions to communicate

Chose 5 animal finger puppet. Name each animal and make the sound of the animal. Your little one will like to hear different sounds. For ex. Say “the cow says, MOOO!” “the duck says, Quack Quack!” etc. Pay attention to your baby’s reaction.

Babies are attracted to things that move and things that make interesting noises and sounds.

Activity for 9-12 months

Your baby’s language skills are flourishing rapidly. It is never too late to read, talk, chant, sing, and have conversations with your baby through out the day.

Activity: 5 Little Ducks Stick Puppets

Will Need: 5 Little Ducks Puppets and 5 Little Ducks Song

( You can get a free printable here and just add a popsicle stick to the puppets.)

Objective: Child will develop language and communication skills.

Children always enjoy this song. Sing 5 Little Ducks as you hold the stick puppets.

The 5 Little Ducks Nursery Rhyme goes like this:

Five little ducks went out one day
Over the hill and far away
Mother duck said, “Quack, quack, quack, quack”
But only four little ducks came back

One, two, three, four

the rhyme continues, where the mother loses one duck each time.

Until the end where she goes “over the hill and far away” and all five ducks return.

And in the end it’s a happy ending where the mother and her 5 ducks are reunited!

The full song lyrics is here

Conclusion

Playing with puppets with your baby is a fantastic way to help them learn language, social and emotional development, and motor development. Children thrive on repetition. They love to look at the same books, sing the same songs and play the same games over and over again. Repeating these experiences is critical for infants to develop language skills and a sense of security.

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