Why Storytelling Matters

As early childhood educators, we are huge advocates of storytelling. It is becoming more and more common for children to end their days with screen time (which can be harmful to a child's brain development in many ways.) We love discovering new children's literature and are always promoting reading out loud to our kids! It's usually one of their favorite things to do when we take a break during our fun filled days at Bright Beginnings. But we also love storytelling without a book! This gives children the opportunity to not only listen but imagine. We live in such a visually stimulated world that story telling has become rare. When we discovered Create a Story Cards- we knew we just had to have them! They are a fun, interactive way to take turns with your child in creating and telling your own story! There are so many benefits to storytelling- here are a few:

1. Did you know that storytelling has been proven to strengthen brain development? It makes sense when you think about it-without the guidance of text and illustrations a child is required to listen more thoughtfully, use their imagination to visualize characters and also remember the sequence of events throughout the story.
2. While it may be an obvious one- storytelling drastically improves language skills. When a young child has the opportunity to listen to a story, they have a chance to hear words presented in a different way than they are used to while also hearing a persons speech inflections. A slightly older child will have the opportunity to expand their vocabulary. Also, children hearing a plot building, conflict, the climax of a story and characterization only helps with the anticipation of learning these story building skills a few years down the road when they will be writing their own stories in elementary school.
3. Memory building is also a huge developmental benefit for storytelling. Since storytelling isn't guided by text and illustrations, children are forced to remember characters names and specific events that are important to the story. This in turn helps to exercise the memory skills of children. An adult story teller is encouraged to ask questions during and after the story to further engage in memory building exercises.
4. One of our personal favorites as a benefit of storytelling is how it develops creative thinking and imagination! Fostering creativity and imagination is incredibly important to the developmental needs of a child. Creativity promotes emotional, social, physical, language and literacy development- phew- lots of benefits for creativity!
5. Storytelling is also great for improving cultural understanding. Listening to stories about unfamiliar places, people and situations allows children to gain empathy for the unknown and become open minded in the future about different experiences.

Other benefits include:

• Strengthening enthusiasm for reading
• Enhancing community among children
• Improving listening skills
• Encourages writing
• Encourages verbal skills and helping lead purposeful talking and discussion