Why Stories are Important for Children?

“Mommy! Please tell me a story!” How can you resist such a request? You can’t! And even more – you shouldn’t! Early childhood period is a time when children acquire language and by being socially active, they develop communication skills. This period is a time when children develop oral language as well as literacy skills like reading, writing and listening. Therefore stories play a very important role in child's development.

What makes storytelling so effective for learning?

Stories play a vital role in the growth and development of children. It boosts speaking and listening skills. Stories help your children to develop their language skills and thinking and this is an inseparable part of the learning process, communication and social interactions. 

Children absorb many words which they would use throughout the first years of their lives! Whether you tell stories or read them from books, stories are one of the ways children learn to enjoy reading.

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. 

If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” 

/Albert Einstein/

Story telling helps in learning by improving kid’s memory, develop their comprehension skills allowing to understand stories better. And help your child to learn about world around. It’s a great way to introduce new words and ideas. Story telling helps to encourage your child to ask questions. And when they have questions, that means they are thinking!

Stories can help to learn about concepts such as shape, size, colors and numbers. Helps to teach everyday tasks, values, complex ideas such as the importance of sharing, compassion for others. Story telling is fun, interactive and makes it so effective also because it works for all types of learners. It helps to improve confidence level now, in school and grown- up life!

“The stories we love best live with us forever” /J.K. Rowling/

The stories we hear as children shape our view of the world. Kids learn how to behave, think and act through the characters they meet in stories. Stories has a strong influence on children’s understanding of cultural and gender roles. Convey values, attitudes and social norms and give a chance to shape children’s perceptions of reality and expand their perspective. 

Story time with your children can be a special time they will remember all their lives. As you tell the story, think about the aspects of stories you love and the values you want to express. 

“To be a person is to have a story to tell”!

/Karen Blixen/

When you tell a story, you spark a connection!

Good stories can build familiarity and trust allowing the listeners to enter the story and making them more open to learning process. The process of storytelling touches the emotions of the listeners. It creates smiles, excitement and even fears. Stories convey important information about relationships and feelings in family. Story telling is a chance to express themselves that allows you to understand your kids better and find out more about their interests and personality. It will open an opportunity to discuss story content.

Ask them to make stories together and be a part of it. Young children bring information about people, things and places in their everyday play. Reading together, telling stories home, on the way or even visiting library are just some ways of spending quality time together. Telling stories together can bring so much fun! Collaborative storytelling between parents and children, where everyone is contributing to a story, offers a unique time to bond and reinforce connection.

Don’t be afraid to involve everyday situations in your stories, use good samples, explanations. Characters and heroes will be a perfect tool to make the story exciting, interesting and memorable. Stories will help to relax, to solve the problem or prepare for something new, for example new baby in family. Don’t forget to think about complexity. For kids till age of three choose stories that are more easy to understand. And be sure they understand what you are talking about. This special time together promotes bonding and helps to build relationship.

Foster creativity, imagination and curiosity

Stories can spark imagination of your child. Stimulates curiosity, creativity and visualization.

My kid, he is only three now. He can’t read but he is such a good story teller, just by watching the book. I love his stories so much and it’s so fun to do that together!

Remember it’s not necessary to read stories from a book, you can make up your own. And they will be even more special! When you start looking, you can find inspiration everywhere! Use characters, change your voice and don’t be lazy to repeat your stories again and again, because probably they didn’t catch everything for the first time. And if you want your kid to make a certain opinion about a particular behavior or action it’s a nice way to repeat more times through the story. Involve your kids and give them a chance to be a part of your story!  

As you can see, stories are important for a number of reasons and form a vital part of the growing process. Sharing stories every day helps a lot in development of your child by helping to become familiar with new words, sounds, values. This all builds your child’s literacy skills which helps to go on to lead a successful life! Story telling is learning, understanding, making relationship, spending quality time together and much more!

THE END :)

References & inspiration: 

• Dragana Gnjatović1 “Child care facility Original scientific paper University of Malta” UDK: 37.022 DOI: 10.17810/2015.07 - Gnjatović: STORIES IN DIFFERENT DOMAINS OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT
• https://www.writersbureau.com/writing/Why-are-stories-important-for-children.htm
• https://www.harvardbusiness.org/what-makes-storytelling-so-effective-for-learning/
• Asha Thorat “Story- telling for overall growth”- Creating Life-Long empowering values within your child.