Mento-Puppet 2001: An Alternate Strategy

Mento-Puppet 2001, a workshop for teachers on educational puppetry for mentally challenged children was organised by the Hyderabad Puppet Theatre, Vooyala Communications and Hyderabad City Grandhalaya Samstha jointly.

Over 80 mentally retarded children from 30 schools participated in the workshop. During the inaugural ceremony the Workshop Director M Rajya Lakshmi, said that alternate strategies like Puppet Art need to be promoted like the other arts of singing, dancing and drawing - all of which are very effective in eliciting a response from children in general and children with mental handicap in particular.

"The Puppet show is the favourite among our children," said P Jaipal Reddy of Alambana Special School for Mentally Handicapped, which has been taking the aid of puppets for teaching their children for the past two years. "Puppets can make them learn more things than the teachers," he said.

"The children would be ready to complete their given work to watch the puppet show," said M Sheela, a psychologist from Andhra Mahila Sabha. "It is hard to get their attention unless you have something to attract them," she said, adding that they have been using the puppet show as a stimulus for their children to complete their given work.

Source: Mento-Puppet 2001 inaugurated, Times of India, 28 June, 2001