Why Storytelling helps children to develop?

Storytelling is a real fun as it is not just a reading, it involves different props and other aids to tell the story. Storyteller can have eye contact and can interact with children and make a story more interesting with involving children to the story telling. Asking questions such as: “What happened next?” encourage interaction.

Children always pay attention to the storyteller who uses his/her own voice for emphasizing the major character’s voice.  

Goldilocks and the Three Bears is a good example, how the voice can be changed  emphasizing the feelings and reactions of the bears and how children can be involved to the story. 

For this storytelling used coloured book with big pictures and letters. Books should be carefully chosen and it is very important to find an age appropriate books for children. There is a wide range of books available from very early age and these books have attractive illustrations, which give a visual delight and some books also can help with sensorial learning, like having different materials, buttons to press or some books even can release a smell. I could get the book: Large Print Fairy Tales (1999) Brown Watson, England, with colorful big pictures. 

• Use puppets and other visual or sensorial aids. For example at the local shop I saw a bathing glove with 5 bears on each finger. I just needed to sew a little and put some decoration on it and instantly I  had my three bears.  Gloves puppets are easy to use, and children love it. This technique allows illustrating more characters together or one by one. Using gloves puppets also helps to use the proper body language and helps to establish eye contact with the children.
• For providing a sensorial aid, I’ll go for the Bears’ beds, and create one „Too hard” for the Daddy Bear, one „Too soft” for the Mammy Bear” and one „Just right” for the Baby Bear.

Book s and stories are important in all part of Physical, Intellectual, Language, Emotional and Social development.

1. For physical development book helps to develop gross-, and fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination (e.g.: pointing at the picture).
2. For intellectual development book helps to learn about the word as it gives new information. Books promote thinking, memorising and fantasy. Books play a very important role in intellectual development. Books help in imagination, concentration, gives new knowledge or with repetition children can easily memorise words, which will help them in their further studying.
3. Language development is mainly based on books. And this concerns to both spoken and the written language. Through storytelling children learn sounds, rhythms that occur in language, signs and symbols, but most importantly children learn to listen carefully.
4. In relation to emotional development as these stories are enjoyable children will have their favourite characters, and they can feel empathy with the characters. During story time children will laugh, scream, shout etc. as they interact with the story teller, they show the characters’ feelings with enthusiasm. Books provide a reach imaginative world and it gives a great pleasure to the child. Story telling is often a rest time before sleep.
5. Story telling is often happens in small groups, where children can improve their social development. They interact with the group, learn turn taking, sharing and plenty things about the society, and moral codes. Also children learn respect for books.

Choose from books

Use your own puppet to tell your story: