Evaluation of Puppetry Workshops for the Jim Henson Foundation

Program Evaluation

Aug 1

Client: The Jim Henson Foundation | Location: Queens, NY | Funding: Next for Autism

We evaluated a series of workshops designed by The Jim Henson Foundation to teach school counselors and teachers how to use puppets to engage with students on the autism spectrum.

OVERVIEW

In 2019-2020, we evaluated a professional development series, Making Connections Through Puppetry, for The Jim Henson Foundation. The workshops were fueled by The Jim Henson Foundation’s interest in using puppets to engage with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and research by the Yale Child Study Center showing that puppets facilitate attention to social cues in children with ASD. This two-part workshop series was designed to support counselors, teachers, and other autism support staff in New York City in using puppets to interact with their students.

APPROACH

We used a mixed-methods approach including naturalistic observations of the workshops, a post-workshop survey, and in-depth remote interviews a few weeks after the workshops to explore teachers’ and counselors’ experience of using their new puppetry skills in their classrooms.

CLIENT TAKEAWAYS

Together with The Jim Henson Foundation, we learned that teachers and counselors were highly motivated and excited to use puppets with their students despite limited previous puppetry experience. In between workshops, some used puppets with their ASD students and reported with enthusiasm that students were more willing to communicate, while other workshop participants expressed a lack of confidence in their puppetry skills and a need for more assistance. When the Covid-19 pandemic began soon after the workshop series, and schools closed, the training shifted to an online format which more easily allowed for continued support around puppetry and ASD.

Our work helped make the case for The Jim Henson Foundation’s pioneering work using puppetry as a tool for communication with children with ASD and increased overall awareness of the unique relationship between puppets and children on the autism spectrum.