Empower
the Young

Why puppets?

Technological puppets

Dotty, the furry Tellmie puppet, held up by a child

In the ETY project, we use a talking furry object as a child-friendly and interactive object for discussing big challenges with young children. These objects are called ‘Tellmies’ and they are developed by Go Wonder, a great small Dutch company. The Tellmie specifically designed for the ETY project is called ‘Dotty’.

Tellmies are smart, interactive audio-objects. Any soft toy — or other object — can transform into a Tellmie with Go Wonder’s vandal resistant custom made technology. It turns into a playful interactive (audio) guide for families, school groups and/or visually impaired visitors. The Tellmie guides them, asks questions and responds to their answers by using various sensors.

Dotty (the ETY Tellmie) will start talking when the person who handles it passes a previously installed beacon. It works like a Podcatcher or audiotour device, but it feels totally different.

Tellmies work well for discussing big challenges with young children for various reasons:

  • Children can hug and pet the Tellmie, which has a friendly appearance. This tangible interaction sparks quick and strong emotional attachment to the Tellmie.
  • Petting creates a form of interaction between the Tellmie and the children, which feels like collaborative dialogue. The Tellmie can react to petting by reinforcing statements like ‘well thought through’ or ‘great ideas’. For children, this feels like non-controlling support.
  • The Tellmie uses open audio (no headphones), so that it makes the activity a shared activity. Relatedness — doing new things together — enlarges the motivation to learn new things and also enables intergenerational learning.
  • Children can determine the pace of the tour; the Tellmie will start talking only when it is triggered by a beacon. There is no time pressure. Also, they can hold the ‘tour guide’ in any position they want. This gives a feeling of autonomy, which is important in motivational learning.
  • The scripts contain many short playful (bodily) interactions: the children will receive instructions to search, dance, sing, feel, talk, whisper or act out something. Playfully involving the body in learning is important for children this age. If the movement is relevant to the educational content, it will be better remembered later on (which is good for empowering).
  • The built-in scripts contain storytelling, which contributes to effective pedagogy for this target group.
  • The scripts used in the ETY project contain positive, actionable steps which young children can actually do (like asking for a second-hand toy instead of a new one). This builds agency rather than anxiety.

Non-tech puppets

Video about non-tech puppets — coming soon

  • Tips for hand puppetry (coming soon)

Resources

← Back to the toolkit overview