Cartoon aliens help children to open up about traumatic experiences

Children often find it difficult to speak about their most difficult experiences, and child therapists frequently employ play and art techniques to allow children to share and make sense of traumatic events. Antennas is a cartoon alien, created by psychologist Julia Borbolla, to encourage children in Mexico to share traumatic experiences. The cartoon is voiced by trained psychologists but the voices are distorted to sound childlike. Antennas acts as though it does not know anything about life on earth in order to ask questions about children’s lives. Another character, Dulas, talks to children in hospital, while Bosty is used to gather evidence that can be used in court cases, and has even been used in a murder trial. Despite some public services in Mexico now using Antennas and other characters, there is currently no research that measures the effectiveness of these cartoons. Some experts have raised concerns over the use of such characters, questioning whether children will tell the truth to a fictional character or consider it fantasy. Julia Borbolla opposes these claims, based on her 35 years of experience. She suggests that psychologists use techniques to establish if children are telling the truth and that children do not lie about their feelings. She would like to see these characters used all over the world and claims that the cartoons quickly establish a rapport with the children, which helps to make them feel comfortable and free. See more here.