The history of storytelling goes back thousands of years; cave dwellers would illustrate their stories on cave walls before tales and adventures were passed down through the generations by word of mouth. Whole families, even whole villages, would sit around the fire of an evening entertaining each other with fables, myths and legends. Those who excelled at story telling would become entertainers and educators for the community.
The power of storytelling remains to this day, people always have and always will love a good story. Today, stories are not just delivered by our friends, families, and communities, but also movies, books, tv shows and video games. We tend to view storytelling as purely a form of entertainment, but for early years children, the benefits are both great and lifelong.
Children love the excitement and adventure of a good story, when a child is actively involved in a story, they become absorbed, immersed in the action and eager to find out what happens to the characters they have been introduced to. Children learn and develop when they are interested in the activity at hand and the right story is a great tool to pique that interest.
Some of the many benefits of storytelling for early years children include:
· Language and vocabulary development – listening to stories gives children the opportunity to hear new words and speech inflections. Words that may not have been relevant to the child’s world gain new importance and will lead to children questioning the meaning of words and trialling use of new words in interactions.
· Emotional development – studies have found that reading fiction to children regularly results in them showing more empathy and having a better understanding that other people have different thoughts, feelings and motivations.
· Problem Solving – young children’s lives are generally lived in a controlled environment, but reading stories to them can open up and enhance their small worlds. Research has found that the brain activity that occurs when hearing or reading a story is similar to experiencing the situation in real-life, giving children the chance to figure out how to solve or navigate a similar circumstance in reality.
· Attention Span – a child’s ability to pay attention for long periods of time tends to be lower the younger the child. As children grow older their attention span develops, but some older children can continue to struggle to pay attention for prolonged periods of time. A gripping story draws children in and is great practice for paying attention to things they may find less interesting.
· Creativity - having a story read to them encourages children to use their imaginations, picturing the events that the words are describing to them. Although stories can be accessed in a multitude of visual mediums, it is important that children are also read to, allowing them to build the world in which the story takes place themselves.
The benefits of storytelling for early years children are endless and impossible to cover completely in one blog post. If you would like to find out more, please get in touch to discuss our storytelling for early years workshops by calling 07903 662181 or completing our contact us form.