Playing with toys that have "mouths" can help children who are working on controlling biting. Here's a way to make a puppet with a hinged mouth. You'll also be letting your child know people can find other uses for things (like empty boxes) that they might have thrown away.

Materials:

• Small empty box (from pudding or single servings of cereal)
• Knife or scissors
• Tape
• Construction paper
• Scrap materials (buttons, yarn, cotton balls, etc.)
• Glue

Directions:

If you have opened the box through a top flap, tape it shut again. Then cut around the middle on three sides. Fold the back of the box in half to make a hinge that looks like a mouth. Your child can put his or her fingers in the top part of the box and thumb in the bottom to make the mouth work. The shape of the box you use will suggest where the puppets' facial features could be. Your child might want to cover the box with construction paper and glue on scrap materials to make faces and hair.

While you're helping your child make this puppet, you might want to talk about all the different things we do with our mouths -- eat, sing, talk, yawn, whistle, hum, laugh and more. Also, you may see your child using the puppet to play about biting. You can help your child by mentioning that there are some things (like food) that mouths can bite and some things (like people) that mouths must not bite.

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