Quebec Therapy Experiences

Puppet therapy experiences

North America

Canada - Quebec

Individual therapy with an autistic child.

 Sr. Gabriel Bouchard. Self-taught educator. 1984. (19)

This educator has been working with autistic, disabled or disadvantaged children in Montreal and has also been at the Center Populaire de la Marionnette du Saguenay in Quebec.

In 1984 he was offered a job in a daycare center to work on a social integration program with a 4-year-old autistic child who did not speak and was aggressive.

Collaborate with a psychoanalyst. Bouchard builds with the help of a puppeteer and with photos of the child, a puppet like him and of the same height.

Through this puppet he tries to communicate with the child. It uses different sensations, smell, touch, emotional contact and also aggression.

Gradually this child leaves his inaccessible world, becoming interested in the puppet and playing with it.

At the end of the school year the experience is interrupted.

But there has been great progress in the social behavior of the child and he has also become aware of others.