A quarter century+ on the "Bear Track Trail"

Here I am in the 80s...a Halloween lesson with puppet Brother Goose dressed as a bear (yes...that fabric's leftover from Teddy's first version!!!)

As you may know, I am a speech-language pathologist who had an idea a long time ago (in the 1980s!) when I received my certification.    I realized that children learned so well when they had manipulatives, like those used in reading and math to construct syllables, words and number sense.  AND I loved puppets!  
​Sooo...I put these two ideas together and Teddy Talker was born.  
 
The Teddy you meet today is the SEVENTH version to construct sounds and connect to early literacy!

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Did you know that one version (#3) even had Teddy with a "portable"(!) three foot game high board?  There were LOTS of changes to Teddy as he grew with the children...

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More than 25 years of revision led to today's fun-loving, "paws-on" bear!

Teddy's mouth changed from this...

 

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to this!

In my experience,  some children needed more visual, tactile-kinesthetic input in their learning.     And today, just as with the original Teddy,  learning still relies on awesome "kid-power" to move mouth pieces and a puppet tongue to physically construct sounds.   Kids move them "first in the air, then on the bear!"

Whether the manipulatives are felt (as in the "vintage" version), or paper (today's additional digital Teddy downloads), this multisensory approach is designed for learning connections.  

​Most importantly, as in puppetry, it is children that create the magic that bring Teddy to life to make learning joyful. That is something that never seems to change!