As another procedure of investigation, children are allowed to play with a marionette stage. They make up their own plays, usually with one child doing the outline and filling it in with suggestions from one or two other children. The plot outline is usually very simple, with the play consisting largely in improvisations. The marionettes represent such figures as permitted to the child to symbolize a father-figure, a mother-figure, siblings and other dramatis personae in his life.
Marionette shows sometimes reveal very well the psychological factors in the family constellation.