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Every night before bed, I would tell my daughter stories. Often, she was the main character in these tales. With each character and adventure, I saw her eyes light up with excitement and curiosity. She would often comment, "Mom, I want to be brave and help others too!" or "When I grow up, I’ll invent something so no child is poor." This shows she was able to identify with the characters and circumstances in the stories, with all those children's gangs and fearless heroes fighting against evil and injustice. Later, when she learned to read, she delved into the world of books on her own, without my help. Now, she passionately explores new worlds, characters, and adventures through books, all thanks to those stories I once read to her aloud.
The Power of Storytelling
People have loved stories since ancient times, and they have always been told, as evidenced by the cave drawings Lascaux and Chavaux in France, dating back up to 30,000 years. They depict animals, people, and objects, and look like visual stories or stories in pictures.
Storytelling is a powerful tool parents can use to enrich and enhance their children's childhood. Through stories, children not only enjoy and learn but also develop their inner world, skills, and values that will serve them throughout their lives.
Opening doors for children to empathy, courage, resourcefulness, doing good deeds, curiosity, and a readiness to eagerly embrace knowledge is not easy, but it can become simpler through stories that directly address the child. When in the stories their parents read to them, children find answers to questions they ask themselves and identify with the heroes and situations, they are drawn into the magical world of literature. How 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 Child Development
Stories are a powerful tool for learning about the world. Through listening to stories, children learn about virtues and become familiar with new ideas. Storytelling is not just a fun activity but a crucial part of child development that brings numerous benefits that will be useful throughout their lives.
What I would highlight as particularly meaningful to me is that in this world where reading and attention to books are declining, my child has become an active reader thanks to the habit of listening to stories that I instilled in her. Books were not foreign to her, and through daily bedtime stories, she developed a love for reading.
Development of Literacy and Speaking Skills through Storytelling
Listening to stories encourages the development of language skills,including vocabulary, grammar, and text 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 require reflection, problem-solving, and decision-making. This develops critical thinking and analytical skills in children.
Social Skills
Through stories, children learn about interpersonal relationships,empathy, and cooperation. Characters in stories provide behavior models that children can imitate in real life, helping them navigate social life more effectively.
Emotional Resilience and Adaptability
Emotional resilience is the ability to mentally and emotionally cope with negative emotions and manage them. Stories depicting characters facing challenges and overcoming obstacles help children develop emotional resilience and learn how to deal with their difficulties and handle their emotions (e.g., sadness, fear, or jealousy).
What Do Children Identify With in Stories?
Characters
Children often identify with characters similar in age, interests, or experiences. Heroes who overcome obstacles and demonstrate courage and strength are especially inspiring, prompting children to emulate them.
Situations
Stories depicting situations that children can relate to—such as challenges in groups (kindergarten, school), friendships, or family situations—help children better understand and solve their problems.
Emotions
Stories exploring a wide range of emotions can help children recognize and name their feelings, which is an important step in developing emotional intelligence.
How to Tell Stories to Children
Probably the most important, yet often forgotten, element of fostering a love of reading in children is for parents to show interest in books. What fascinates mom or dad is likely to capture the children’s attention as well.
We know you don’t always have the time or energy after a busy and hectic day, and you may not be sure which types of stories or fairy tales are appropriate for your child’s age. Let those few minutes be a special part of your day—a time when your child enters a magical world of stories and leaves it enriched with another experience, another value, and another lesson.
Interactivity
Reading to little ones should be interactive, so mom and dad need to be creative during the story. If you tell a familiar story with an unexpected twist, your child will surely laugh and be entertained.
Involve children in the story by asking them what they think will happen next or how they would react in certain situations. This stimulates their imagination and engagement.
The child can finish the sentences, guess what will happen next, come up with reasons why something happened, and 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 become more involved and better understand the story.
Adapting the Story to the Age
Stories should be age-appropriate. When reading to younger children, use simple sentences and clear plots, while older children can enjoy more complex stories with serious themes and deeper messages.
Conclusion
As I have concluded from personal experience, storytelling for children brings numerous benefits. Above all, it is our little bedtime ritual, quality time spent together that the child remembers and strengthens the parent-child bond.
Storytelling also helps them develop listening skills and sharpen their memory. Stories stimulate imagination, curiosity, and trigger creative thinking. Through stories, children develop emotional intelligence, communication skills, empathy, and social skills. They help them understand different cultures and emotionally develop. Storytelling relaxes, makes learning more enjoyable, and contributes to the development of cognitive skills. Additionally, stories enhance concentration and aid in learning important values and ethics.
As a mom who read to her children, I laid the foundation for them to later become avid readers themselves, which certainly influenced their language and literacy, as well as their ability to articulate thoughts and enrich their vocabulary. Thanks to fairy tales and stories, as well as discussions about them, children have learned to draw conclusions, analyze, and distinguish important from unimportant. They have learned patience for reading beautiful literature and acquiring various knowledge.
As the writer Emilie Buchwald said: “Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.” I would say that this statement perfectly sums up the incredibly powerful role that parents play in instilling a love of reading in young children.
