Why Story Telling Is An Important Tool In The development Of Child?
“Is your child a picky eater and does not eat well”? Tell Them a story.
“Want to calm your child showing tantrum”? Tell them a story.
OR
“Want to teach them about good touch and bad touch”? Stories are a great way to teach them almost everything.
Children love stories!!! It’s a GIVEN.
Irrespective of any phase where a child is, stories have the power to transform any situation for the better.
However, in today’s world, this art is slowly becoming obsolete. With nuclear familiar set up and both parents working, gadgets have replaced human interaction and communication.
Children miss out on a lot of developmental milestones, without stories that play a very significant role in their cognitive development of infants and young kids.
Why Stories Matter for Children’s Learning
Stories have a great influence on children’s young minds which shapes children’s perceptions of reality. In cultivating imaginative and divergent thinking, stories help in building emotion of empathy. Scholars suggest that through stories, children learn to develop a critical perspective on how to engage in social action.
Studies have shown that storytelling aids children develop their own perspectives about the world on aspects of identity such as gender and race before the age of five.
Novelist John Berger suggests that “young children begin to recognize patterns and visually read the world before they learn to speak, write or read printed language”. Storytelling strongly influences the way a child thinks and behaves.
Storytelling can play a crucial role in helping children learn about the natural world and its challenges. It significantly helps convey values, beliefs, attitudes, and social norms which in turn, shape children’s perceptions of reality.
Researchers believe that children learn to behave, think, and act through the characters that they meet through stories. When a story is told through various forms of picture books, dance, images, songs, or oral retellings – are one of the most fundamental ways in which we communicate. Children internalize the cultural and gender roles of characters in the stories by building a strong connection.
Albert Einstein says “If you want your children to be smart, tell them stories. If you want them to be brilliant, tell them more stories”.
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Benefits of Story Telling :
It can’t be emphasized more that storytelling creates magical moments for children, helping them to grasp the concept better. Children’s interest levels are higher and they sit enthralled for the moment. There are enough reasons why storytelling is considered important. Here’s why:
- The significant role of storytelling is that listening to stories enhances and introduces a lot of vocabulary to children. Children are curious to learn and understand new words. They can relate to the words better and are able to retain in memory for long.
- Storytelling is an interactive activity where someone encourages children to think by using their imagination and visualizing.
- We have grown up listening to stories of grandparents, which is now replaced by technology having no interaction. Digital storytelling is less humane.
- It makes children aware of their cultural roots. Storytelling allows them to learn about their own culture, and helps provokes thoughts, not just morals.
- Children’s listening and grasping ability is significantly improved by way of story-telling.
- Storytelling gives a motivating reason for English language learners to speak and write English.
- The enthusiasm and love for reading are greatly improved when storytelling is practiced on a regular basis.
- It inspires purposeful conversations and not just about the story but there could be many games that can be played.
- Children develop an enthusiasm for reading texts to find stories, reread them, and thereby learn in the process.
- As children are quick learners, storytelling helps organize information and project it in a formatted way. Facts can be forgotten but stories are remembered. The facial expressions, gestures, and body movements made by the storyteller enhance the impact of conveying information in a better way. This is not present while reading the book.
- It is a great way to keep children away from screen time.
- Storytelling is the oldest form of teaching. It is a brilliant way to develop a deep understanding of kids. Storytelling promotes a positive attitude to people from different lands, respect, and appreciation for other cultures and traditions.
- Emotions are real when they see real person narrating concepts to them. Children relate more to learning and remembering when they watch someone enacting.
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What kind of stories can be told to children?
Folklore from different traditions:
India is a place with multiple cultures existing together. The cultures are rich and if explored give us insights about diversities and bonding among them. You can share your experiences, how you have known about different cultures, and what it teaches us. Every culture has customs that convey a lot about humanity and the ways we live. Children can learn a lot about that.
Personal Experiences:
You can share your life stories, your growing up days, your school, college days, your friends, and relatives.
Stories that you have heard from your grandparents, will definitely catch the attention of your little ones. The ancestral place you have visited and the food and music that all the family bonded with. It is so much fun as well as learning for kids.
Moral Stories:
Morals in life cannot be taught in a better way to children than through stories. Stories that you have grown up with, which had the most impact on your life. Stories that changed your perception of life.
Children are most likely to learn a lot when they get to know about these stories. Make it a way of life to spend time with children and share stories.
Your Child’s Interests
Take out time to find out what interests your child a lot. The characters which they like to watch them can be picked and made stories about them. Let them know what you had grown up watching. Which characters were your favorite and so on.
Select books that have a lot of pictures in them, which excites children a lot. Tell the story to children, pointing out to the stories and explaining them.
This will get your kid more involved and hooked. Isn’t that you want from an activity.
Books You Loved As a Child
You can read out books that interested you in your childhood. It can be about animals, morals, religious characters, folklore, fairytale, interactive books, picture books, etc.
There are chances you might share the same choices for characters with your child. It is more likely that you will enjoy together more.
Why Story Telling Works?
Through stories, you can teach ANYTHING.
“Story Telling is the most powerful tool to put ideas into the world today”- Robert McKee.
Storytelling is giving the information with context, which when given is easier to organize, understand, and remember.
Contrary to the list of random numbers or facts, our brains hold information into a sieve by a story-telling method.
For example, it is difficult to make a child remember the order of historical occurrences if mere numbers and years are given, in order of its occurrence.
If the same information is given with a storyline with the character, probably it will be much easier to grasp and easier to recall.
Stories have the ability to move us emotionally. Mere data and facts do not have the power to make humans act. When people are emotionally compelled, they are more engaged. More of the brain is engaged in remembering than random facts and figures.
Characters leave a mark on our minds, which children too tend to understand better.
Stories make a difference to people where they are actively receiving information than a passive one. It also changes how children choose to act in the world.
A mental picture of the stories often envisioned in the story settings that slid into participation beyond classroom walls and storyteller’s presence. This improves the literacy skills of children.
Students of all ages love stories and can be easily engaged to teach and entertain. It helps develop concentration and imagination. Storytelling makes children get emotionally involved and truly enjoy the learning process.
If you would like to make learning fun for children, you can do so by having the Uppercase and Lowercase Alphabet Clipcard for Alphabet recognition and identification.
Do you include storytelling in your child’s learning? How happy are you with the responses your child shows while applying storytelling as a learning tool? Let us know in the comments the stories you read out to your child to date, and how it has impacted them.
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