Puppets & Autism: A Special Connection
a panel discussion hosted by The Jim Henson Foundation
Friday July 21, 2023 2pm-3pm
Puppeteers of America National Puppetry Festival, University of Maryland
A recording of the Puppets and Autism panel is below.
INFORMATION ABOUT THE PANELISTS AND THEIR WORK:
Cheryl Henson is the President of The Jim Henson Foundation, an organization dedicated to contemporary American puppet theater which has made over 1100 grants for the creation of new work. From 1992 – 2000, Cheryl executive produced the award winning biennial Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater, presenting 136 productions from 31 countries over five festivals in New York City. Cheryl is on the board of directors of The Jim Henson Company and the Center for Puppetry Arts.
Yale Child Study Center: From 2017-2021, the Jim Henson Foundation collaborated with the Yale Child Study Center on the first clinical research study on how children on the autism spectrum look at puppets. The study was supervised by Dr. Katarznya Chawarska and utilized puppet videos made with The Foundation. A paper on the study was published on August 4th 2021 in the journal of The International Society for Autism Research. You can learn more about the study here: Yale News article. | ||||||
Lindsey “Z.” Briggs is the creator of Making Connections Through Puppetry, a professional developement course that teaches educators, counselors, and therapists puppetry skills and techniques to enhance regulation, motivation and engagement when working with children on the autism spectrum. She is the Foundation Manager of the Jim Henson Foundation, co-artistic Director of WonderSpark Puppets, and can also be heard as the voice of Foley on the Sesame Street Podcast with Foley and Friends, now in its third season on Audible.
Making Connections Through Puppetry is a professional development workshop series offered from WonderSpark Puppets that teaches educators, therapists, counselors, and parents how to use puppets when working with children on the autism spectrum. Puppetry can be used as an effective learning tool and bridge for trust, communication, and motivation. Participants who have taken this workshop have gone on to use the skills that they learn in many areas of students’ IEPs including joint attention, functional pretend play, social/emotional learning, empathy, emotional regulation, impulse control, language learning and more.
Kieran Braun, founder of Kiersval Productions, is a summa cum laude university graduate, performer, and teaching artist from Tennessee with a reputation for innovative art and memorable puppet productions. From a young age, Kieran studied the art of puppetry and has spent much of his life sharing his passion through educational workshops, creating unique puppet characters, and presenting original performances designed for family audiences.
Kieran’s Panel Introduction: I am so excited and honored to be sitting on a panel here at this year’s National Puppetry Festival. I really enjoy attending puppetry festivals to gain advice and experience in improving my puppetry skills. Each festival offers a unique opportunity to grow as a puppeteer and to meet fabulous people in the puppetry community.
When I was diagnosed with autism at age three, puppets were part of my everyday life. My parents began using puppetry to support language acquisition. My speech therapists used my passion for puppetry to help develop pragmatic language and social skills. As I kept improving my communication, I figured out that puppetry could be used as a method to communicate with people.
Often, we had a system of rewards for me to understand appropriate communication and behavior. Almost always, my reward would be puppetry related. One of my favorite rewards was a series of trips to the Center for Puppetry Arts. I have been a member of the Center for twenty years and have developed many wonderful relationships with the CPA staff.
I was inspired by the works of Jim Henson and had a strong desire to follow in his footsteps as a puppeteer. My first original puppet production, In Search of Jim Henson, was when I was in the sixth grade. My teacher allowed me to instruct my fellow classmates in the art of puppetry to help me bring this production to fruition. Everyone was thrilled when we presented it to hundreds of students and received wonderful feedback. A few months afterward, I had the honor of meeting Brian Henson at a conference at CPA and gave him a copy of my performance honoring his father.
During my high school years, I wrote two original productions and performed with my puppet team at area schools, zoos, and libraries. The success of our performances led to my environmental-awareness program, Protect and Preserve, being awarded and included in the Parks as Classrooms curriculum across the state of Tennessee. During my senior year of college, I presented my bullying-awareness production, Make a Plan, as part of my Bonner Scholar senior capstone project which focused on promoting puppetry and the arts to underprivileged children in our area. I was also asked to perform my play and teach a puppetry workshop for the A.D. Players Theatre in Houston as my first professional puppetry experience. Performing on the stage of the beautiful George Theatre for hundreds of Houston school children was such a rewarding experience.
Also, during my high school and college years, I had the opportunity to visit elementary schools and libraries and teach the art of puppetry in a hands-on setting. During the pandemic, some of the teachers reached out to request that I make custom puppets to help their students cope with all the changes related to COVID. This increased my interest in designing and creating puppets, and I’ve continued building puppets ever since.
I know without the art of puppetry and the support of many people in the puppetry community, I certainly would not be who I am today. Puppetry allowed me to break down barriers of communication and build relationships that helped me succeed through my early school years and throughout my life. I sincerely hope that one day, I will be able to fully support myself as a puppeteer and puppet builder. I hope all the people here will be encouraged to help your students or the individuals in your life on the spectrum to follow their dreams. Puppetry can be a unique and effective way to make a difference.
Check out more Questions and Answers with Kieran here
Aretta Baumgartner, a performer/teaching artist specializing in puppetry, mask and movement, has been a professional puppeteer since 1992 and is proud to be Education Director at the Center for Puppetry Arts (Atlanta, GA), the largest non-profit dedicated to the art of puppetry in the United States. Aretta developed and coordinates Puppetry for All, an initiative to create a welcoming and supportive environment for all guests who come to the Center.
Center for Puppetry Arts and Accessibility – We’re committed to ensuring that our facilities, exhibitions, and services are accessible to all individuals, including those with disabilities. If you have any questions about accessibility at the Museum or would like to request an accommodation, please contact us. Questions or Comments? Email accessibility@puppet.org
Center for Puppetry Arts and Puppets for All – Guests who are deaf, hard of hearing, visually impaired, or part of the ASD community are invited to enjoy the Center for Puppetry Arts in a fun, comfortable, and welcoming environment!
Center for Puppetry Arts Sensory Friendly Sundays – Guests with sensory sensitivities (such as Autism Spectrum Disorder) and other developmental differences are invited to enjoy the Center for Puppetry Arts in a fun, comfortable, and welcoming environment!
Gretchen Van Lente is a theater teacher with District 75 in NYC where she works primarily with students on the Autism Spectrum. Her theater company Drama of Works also runs Puppet Club, an online meeting place where neurodivergent young adults who love puppets can come together to share and socialize. DramaOfWorks.com/puppetclub
Puppet Club is an online meeting place for young people (aged approximately 15 – 30) who love puppets and who are neurodiverse or “differently-wired.” Most have Autism Spectrum Disorder, while others have Learning/Intellectual Disabilities… everyone is welcome at Puppet Club and we celebrate our differences! Learn more about some of the members of Puppet Club and see their art here!
Stacey Gordon is a professional puppeteer and puppet builder from Phoenix, Arizona. She owns and operates Puppet Pie, a puppet building studio located in the downtown Phoenix arts district. Stacey has the honor of performing one of Sesame Street’s newer friends, Julia, a curious, autistic, 4-year-old girl. Learn more about Sesame Workshop’s Autism resources here and explore “Making it Work” an interactive game from Sesame Workshop that helps children build flexibility.
Sesame Street: Play and Sing with Julia! | Julia Compilation: Spend time with Julia, Elmo, Abby, and now Julia’s family in this compilation as they sing songs like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and play fun games like Boing tag! | ||||
Sesame Street: The Pizza Problem with Julia and her Family: Pizza night becomes a pizza problem when Waiter Grover can't remember Julia and her family's pizza order. Julia's dad helps find fun ways to pass the time until Grover finally gets it right! | ||||