Consulting and Information Center  for Left-Handers and  Converted Left-Handers Sendlinger Str. 17, 80331 München Tel./Fax 089 / 268614 www.lefthander-consulting.org

The firm KERSA has made the fingers in its glove puppets, part of the  range, in such a way that they can be just as easily used with the right hand as with the left. With other comparable glove puppets you find that, for the most part, they are designed for the right hand. In this case, however, there is no stress or strain when the left or right hand is put into the glove. Thumbs and small fingers readily find their place on the left or the right side and so left-handed and right-handed children enjoy equally good possibilities with these puppets.

For this reason, we are conferring the  range of the company Firma KERSA Spielwaren-Atelier GmbH & Co. KG with the award of Toy of the Year 2003 for Left-Handed Children.

As one of the clearest examples, we have chosen the glove puppet Punch (Article number17000), which measures 33 x 25 cm.

Description of the finger glove theatre
The hand slips into a soft, padded glove, fleecy on the outside, framed in a felt theatre setting. The neck gives a good grip to stop the hand slipping out of the glove. Puppet heads made from textiles or wood are fixed to each finger of the glove puppet heads or a crocodile or other felt accessories. In the background there is a Punch and Judy theatre, a magic wood or a castle made of felt.
 

Stimulating finger movements, speech and imagination
The glove puppets encourage finger motion and stimulate children to practice playful finger movements. The creative possibilities enable children to have a joyful experience in role play. Speech and expression is stimulated through the dialogue between the individual fingers.

Left-handed children often find great joy immersing themselves in their imaginary stories and the puppets help in this.

It is surely no coincidence that there are left-handers in the family which founded and still runs this company. The son of the managing director, Günther Schubert, himself a left-hander, has concentrated on the needs of left-handed children for a long time and still does as the commercial and marketing director.

Here is a firm which has succeeded in producing a lovely and imaginative toy, equally suitable for left-handed and right-handed children. It helps get their fingers moving and encourages them to make playful interactions and dialogue between the puppet figures.
 

Adaptation for very small hands
It can happen that the puppet heads topple over with children whose fingers are not so big and strong. In this case, help can be provided by sticking a table tennis ball at the end and a face can be painted on the other side. Hair can be provided for the puppet by sticking on wool fibres or cotton wool. A small cap or tunic can easily be made with a piece of cloth or felt. There are no limits to the imagination and the puppet heads are perhaps best when on the thumbs, which usually have more strength for holding them.
 

The firm KERSA does not have the finger glove puppets of the  range on its own website at present, but they can be viewed at the website of LAFÜLIKI.
 

Address:
KERSA Spielwaren-Atelier GmbH & Co. KG, Ifenstraße 7 D-87719 Mindelheim, Tel. 0 82 61) 76 57-0, www.kersa.de, e-mail: info@kersa.de

The illustrations have been made available by kind permission of the company KERSA.

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http://www.lefthander-consulting.org, e-mail: info@lefthander-consulting.org