Therapy experiences Spain

b. MY TEACHER IS A PUPPET

Article published in the newspaper EL PAIS, on February 26, 2007, by Angela Boto.

c. WORKING WITH SCHIZOPHRENIC ADULTS

Santa Eulàlia Day Center. Hospitalet de Llobregat. Hospital sisters. 

Alberto García. Psychologist. 2004

Fig. 56

This is not a direct experience with students with special educational needs, but serves as a working tool against discrimination on the basis of physical disability in the classroom. That’s why I found it interesting to include it in my study. This is a show that is brought to schools to work to raise awareness of people with disabilities.

After having an interview with Maria José Rozas of the Awareness, Leisure and Sport Program of the ECOM Foundation, I was able to enjoy the puppet show and subsequent talk, and I found that the objectives that were proposed were they succeeded, as the activity was very well structured in terms of both information and manipulation. It is an activity promoted by the ECOM Federation, which has its headquarters in Barcelona.

This federation is an organization with more than 50 professionals that brings together 141 associations of people with physical disabilities from all over Spain. Its work focuses on collaborating with these entities in their efforts to improve the quality of life of their members.

Since 2003, in the framework of the European Year of People with Disabilities, it has been developing the “Neighborhood Companions” project of information and awareness for children between 8 and 12 years old.

Through short performances, topics such as blindness, cerebral palsy or mental retardation are introduced, as well as ethnic and cultural differences.

“Companions of the Neighborhood” is a group of five boys and girls (puppets) who went to the same school and live in the same neighborhood. Today they are in high school, and they want to tell us how they met, became friends and learned from each other.

The group represents a part of the diversity that we can find in Catalonia and each puppet is willing to talk about it, to explain what happens to him, why he does not walk or how he reads without using his eyes or where his relatives come from. brown skin, they want to listen and clarify doubts and satisfy any curiosity.

They know that a better knowledge is a first step towards a better relationship of cooperation and sometimes friendship.

To produce this framework, this puppet show has been designed for boys and girls between the ages of 8 and 12, showing two causes of diversity, diminution and cultural differences. Through short performances, topics such as blindness, cerebral palsy and mental retardation are introduced, as well as ethnic and cultural differences. The show is very interactive and the audience can finally ask the puppets anything that makes them curious or how they should behave when a classmate in the neighborhood, school or home stairs, is in the same circumstance that the puppet.

It is assumed that the improvement of knowledge and work on topics and prejudices will make explicit the values of coexistence

The general objective is therefore to make available to monitors, educators, leisure animators and other professionals or volunteers in the field of social work, leisure, formal education, playgroups, daycare centers, playgrounds and other children's environments (and also adults !!!), a working tool for the fight against discrimination due to disability or cultural minority.

b. MY TEACHER IS A PUPPET

Article published in the newspaper EL PAIS, on February 26, 2007, by Angela Boto.

Fig.57

“Max is a refuted pedagogue, he has a long experience in encouraging groups of students and also teachers. Her specialty is creating a good group dynamic and she has made everyone love her. Max is only 4 years old and in his previous life has been a sock. Samuel J. Crombé, a child psychologist and pedagogue, sensed in that sock a hidden talent for teaching and gave it life as a "dragon puppet, because Max and his friends feel hurt if they are called a puppet sock."

Max is part of a group of pioneering pedagogical puppets in Spain, but with the help of Samuel J. Crombé he has already traveled to other countries training teachers who then use them with their own students. Now, together with a group of educators and creators, he is training Spanish teachers. This is a new way of understanding teaching, in which the aim is for the student to take responsibility for their training.

"In France, its use is common and in Japan puppets are integrated into language learning," says Crombé. Its main application has been in language classes, but it is being introduced in other subjects and can even be used to break a negative dynamic within a class. 

The pedagogue assures that in his experience “When a character already known to students appears in a class, an emotional current is created that is beyond all issues of authority and respect. The atmosphere changes immediately. "

The voices of these curious characters allow them to express what would never come out of their mouths. "The teacher can use them with conflicting students to channel opposition or violence," says Crombé. Students can't resist the fascination of a puppet: "When they have it in hand, they start working spontaneously, even changing their voice."

Max is very affectionate and likes to sing. In fact when there are heavy exercises he is in charge of lightening the atmosphere by doing some of his famous shows. But when things get complicated and complicated questions or particularly difficult issues arise, it is Merlin who takes care of resolving the situation. Merlin is a sage, a magician who knows everything, who has all the answers and is always ready to help. “Not being a teacher solves doubts, students feel freer and dare to ask more questions. The only condition is to take the time to get acquainted with the puppet and establish a bond with him. Then the limits of its application are in those of the own imagination ”.

The training of primary and secondary school teachers in the use of puppets has only recently begun, which is why an evaluation of their use is not yet available, but the methodology is part of a whole European movement.

“A great transformation is taking place and its aim is for the student to self-evaluate and be self-motivated, and artistic or theatrical methods are tools of this new form of teaching. Putting the puppet in the student's hand is like passing on the responsibility of learning it. ” 

Article from the newspaper EL PAIS, February 26, 2007, by Angela Boto.

c. WORKING WITH SCHIZOPHRENIC ADULTS

Santa Eulàlia Day Center. Hospitalet de Llobregat. Hospital sisters. Alberto García. Psychologist. 2004

This psychologist started a puppet-related activity 5 years ago. From there they formed a puppet theater group "Imagina", with which they perform in schools, with a very good reception from the public.

The work is carried out with patients who suffer from a severe mental disorder, with a long evolution and who have previously gone through another type of basic rehabilitative activities. Educators also work there.

The “Imagina” experience combines aspects of teamwork, group dynamics, education and socio-cultural animation, which makes it possible to take advantage of the contributions of many intervention models depending on the needs detected. At a general level, the aim of the activity is to create an alternative occupational offer that allows the generalization of the skills acquired in other rehabilitation interventions and involves a proposal for an approach and insertion towards the community framework. At the individual level, the objectives are those established in their Individual Rehabilitation and Reintegration Program.

“We try to involve patients in the whole process, not only in the creation, construction and staging, but especially in the work and decision-making.

I am currently working on one of the spaces for storytelling and training users in dramatic and expressive skills. On the other hand, I assume the tasks of global planning and coordination of the project and those of evaluation of the results of the same. Each session lasts about two hours and the frequency is weekly. The relationship between the group is characterized by mutual support and permanent support between the different members. Improvements have been made in almost all areas of intervention, especially in the sections on negative symptoms (isolation, inhibition, difficulties in abstract thinking…) but perhaps one of the most important aspects is the contribution to the emotional level and , consequently the improvement in the self-concept and the valuation of its own needs. ”

Fig.58