Storytelling using Hand Puppets to Improve Understanding of Emotions in Children with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

Good emotional understanding is one of the factors to effectively control children’s behavior at school. Whereas inhibited understanding of emotions can cause serious behavioral problems in preschool children, especially children with intellectual disabilities. Storytelling using hand puppets is an effort to improve the ability to understand emotions for children with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to see the effect of storytelling using hand puppets on increasing the understanding of emotions of children with disabilities. The design used was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest control group design. Subjects consisted of 10 mildly retarded children with an age range of 10-11 years who were measured using a special emotional understanding measuring instrument. Data were analyzed using non-parametric tests which showed that storytelling using hand puppets can increase the understanding of emotions of children with disabilities.