Effects of Puppetry on Elementary Students’ Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward Individuals with Disabilities

Findings from two studies investigating the effects of Kids on the Block (KOB) puppet shows onelementary school students’ knowledge of and attitude toward individuals with disabilities aredescribed. KOB is a troupe of life-size hand-and-rod puppets used to improve knowledge and changeattitudes toward persons with disabilities. Results from both studies indicated that KOB performanceshad positive effects on both the knowledge and attitudes of second, third, and fourth grade students.Study 1 showed that the puppet show participants had more positive attitudes and more accuratefactual knowledge of individuals with disabilities compared to the control group participants who didnot experience the KOB puppets. Findings from Study 2 showed pretest-post test gain scores for theKOB group were larger than those for the control group. The results taken together provided evidencethat a rather simple intervention was effective in terms of changing the knowledge of and attitudestoward individuals with disabilities.