Imitation Skills
Babies and toddlers generally copy actions before words. Encourage your child to imitate the following actions:
- Giving the puppet a kiss/ hug
- Brushing the puppet’s hair
- Giving the puppet something to eat/drink
- Getting the puppet to wave hi/bye
- Giving the puppet a high five!
Symbolic Sounds
Symbolic sounds generally emerge before first words. Model the following sounds for your child and encourage them to imitate you:
- Mwaaaah for kiss
- Ooooh for the hug
- Mmmmm for eating
First words
- Practise pointing to or naming the different body parts
- If the puppet has clothes, name the different clothing items
- Practise saying hi and bye.
Pretend Play
Older children can continue to enjoy using puppets to develop their pretend play skills. Some of the benefits of pretend play include the following:
- Vocabulary development
- Concept development
- Developing your child’s imagination
- Problem solving skills
- Turn-taking and sharing
- Understanding a social situation
- Developing theory of mind i.e. understanding others’ perspectives
Jumpstart Speech and Language Therapy 