Every evening, before bed, I used to tell my daughter stories. Often she was the main character in those stories too. With every character and every adventure, I saw her eyes light up with excitement and curiosity. She would often comment: “Mum, I want to be brave too and help others!” or “When I grow up, I’m going to invent something so that no child is poor.” That means she managed to identify with the characters and situations in the story. With all those children’s gangs and fearless heroes battling evil and injustice. Later, when she learned to read, she plunged into the world of books on her own, without my help. Now she explores new worlds, characters and adventures through books with passion, and all thanks to those stories I used to read aloud to her.
The power of storytelling
People have loved stories since ancient times and they have always been told, as proven by the cave paintings at Lascaux and Chauvet in France, up to 30,000 years old. They depict animals, people and objects, and they look like visual stories – stories in pictures.
Storytelling is a powerful tool that parents can use to brighten and enrich their children’s childhood. Through stories, children don’t just enjoy themselves and learn – they also develop their inner world, along with skills and values that will serve them throughout their lives.
Opening the door for children to empathy, courage, resourcefulness, doing good deeds, curiosity and a readiness to gladly take in knowledge isn’t easy, but it can become simpler through stories that speak directly to the child. When, in the stories their parents read to them, a child finds the answer to questions they are asking themselves and identifies with the heroes and situations, they are drawn into the magical world of literature. In what way do the adventures described in books benefit a child’s intelligence and imagination? How do the stories we read to children affect their development?
The benefits of storytelling for a child’s development
Stories are a powerful tool for learning about the world. By listening to stories, children find out about and learn about virtues and are introduced to new ideas. Storytelling isn’t just a fun activity, but a key part of a child’s development that brings countless benefits which will serve children throughout their lives.
What I would highlight as something that means a great deal to me personally is that in this world where people read less and less and pay less and less attention to books, my child became an active reader thanks to the habit of listening to stories that I instilled in her. Books were never foreign to her, and through daily bedtime stories she developed a love of reading.
Developing literacy and speaking skills through storytelling
Listening to stories encourages the development of language skills, including vocabulary, grammar and reading comprehension. Children who listen to stories often show better literacy and find it easier to master reading and writing.
Critical thinking
Stories often involve plots that call for reflection, problem-solving and decision-making. This develops critical thinking and analytical ability in children.
Social skills
Through stories, children learn about interpersonal relationships, empathy and cooperation. The characters in stories provide models of behaviour that children can imitate in real life, which will help them find their way more easily in social life.
Emotional resilience and adaptability
Emotional resilience is the ability to cope with negative emotions mentally and emotionally and to manage them. Stories that show characters facing difficulties and overcoming challenges help children develop emotional resilience and learn how to cope with their own difficulties and come to terms with their feelings (e.g. sadness, fear or jealousy).
What do children identify with in stories?
Characters
Children often identify with characters who are similar to them in age, interests or experiences. Heroes who overcome obstacles and show courage and strength are especially inspiring to them, so children want to look up to them.
Situations
Stories that show situations children can relate to – such as challenges in their peer group (nursery, school), friendships, or family situations – help children understand and solve their own problems more easily.
Emotions
Stories that explore a wide range of emotions can help children recognise and name their own feelings. That is an important step in developing emotional intelligence.
How to tell stories to children
Probably the most important, and often forgotten, element of nurturing a love of reading in children is for parents to show an interest in books. What fascinates Mum or Dad will probably catch children’s attention too.
We know you don’t always have the time or the will after a hard and hectic day, and that you may not be sure what kind of stories or fairy tales are suitable for your child’s age. Let those few minutes be a special part of your day – a time when your child enters the magical world of stories and comes out of it richer for one more experience, one more value and one more lesson.
Interaction
Reading to little ones should be interactive, so that Mum and Dad get creative during the story. If you tell a familiar story with an unexpected twist, your child will certainly laugh and enjoy it.
Get children involved in the story by asking them what they think will happen next, or how they would react in certain situations. That stimulates their imagination and engagement.
A child can finish sentences, guess what will happen next, come up with reasons why something happened, repeat words or phrases. Let “story time” become more of a conversation than just reading a story from beginning to end.
Expressiveness and acting
Use different voices and facial expressions to bring the characters and situations in the story to life. This approach helps children get more involved and understand the story better.
Adapting the story to the child’s age
Stories should be adapted to the child’s age. When reading to younger children, use simple sentences and clear plots, while for older children you can tell more complex stories with more serious themes and deeper messages.
Conclusion
As I’ve concluded from personal experience, storytelling brings countless benefits for children. Above all, it’s our little shared bedtime ritual. It’s quality time together that a child remembers and that strengthens the bond between parent and child.
Storytelling also helps them develop listening skills and sharpen their memory. Stories stimulate imaginativeness, curiosity and set creative thinking in motion. Through stories, children develop emotional intelligence, communication skills, empathy and social skills. They help them understand different cultures and develop emotionally. Storytelling relaxes, makes learning more pleasant and contributes to the development of cognitive skills. Stories also encourage concentration and help children learn important values and ethics.
As a mum who read to her children, I laid the foundation for them to gladly read on their own later too, which certainly influenced their language and literacy, as well as their ability to articulate thoughts better and have a richer vocabulary. Thanks to fairy tales and stories, and to talking about them, my children acquired the ability to draw conclusions, analyse and separate the important from the unimportant. They learned patience, both for reading beautiful literature and for absorbing all kinds of knowledge.
As the writer Emilie Buchwald said: “Children become readers in the laps of their parents.” I would say this statement perfectly sums up the incredibly powerful role that parents play in establishing a love of reading in small children.
