IMPORTANCE OF STORIES FOR KIDS
“Alone, by herself she built the kingdom that she wanted”
-R.H Sin
Stories or snippets from daily life or past articulated in a narrative style holds the attention of kids and opens in front of them a different world where they see the characters and events of the story vividly and thus learn to imagine and picture things that they listen to. In this era of advanced technology and fast paced life style, parents often find alternatives to storytelling by playing animated videos or movies for kids. This is good but will not serve all that is provided through storytelling.
LET’S TAKE A SNEAK PEEK IN TO THE DIFFERENT BENEFITS OF STORY TELLING FOR KIDS
KIDS LEARN TO IMAGINE THINGS THAT THEY HAVE NOT EVEN SEEN
Kids learn to imagine things that they have not even seen till date and that urges them to imagine it as per the characteristics that the parent or teacher described. Kids learn to picture an entire story like in a movie or cartoon in their mind. This might also throw open the doors of creative field in front of them that as they grow they might be able to write from their own imaginations and thoughts.
KIDS LEARN SHAPES, COLOURS, NAMES, PLACES, SCIENCE ETC.
Stories also serve an opportunity to teach kids various basic things like colours, shapes, landscapes, sun, moon, stars, galaxies, earth and various other phenomenon including science and geography. Every story has characters and places and kids might be curious to know how they look, how they behave, where do they live etc which opens the possibilities to teach kids all these different basic things in an interesting manner for them and since they learnt it through stories, that probably be imprinted in them and they won’t easily forget it.
KIDS LEARN CULTURES AND TRADITIONS THROUGH STORIES
Narrating stories that speaks about society, their community, different kinds of festivals that people celebrate in the community etc familiarizes the kid with the culture and traditions of their own community and that when they grow they will be aware of these and can easily fulfil the responsibilities expected from them by the community.
INCULCATING VALUES AND IMPARTING MORAL LESSONS TO KIDS
Stories can also be used as a tool to impart the basic values a human must possess and the different aspects essential to be aware of for building the moral side of an individual. Early years are the apt period to lay foundation to the moral base of a person and it is essential to teach kids moral lessons and human values. Moral stories and stories having the protagonist a kind human doing virtues encourage kid to emulate those values in own life.
IMPROVES THE LISTENING SKILLS
Managing a kid is hard and tougher task is to make kid stay in a place and listen to the lesson. However it is observed that kids pay close attention and are deeply involved when they are narrated a story. They are curious about the characters and things in the story and listens carefully. Hence, storytelling is the best mechanism to instil listening skill in kids.
KINDLES CURIOSITY AND DOUBTS IN KIDS THAT ENCOURAGE THEM TO ASK QUESTIONS
Having doubts is a sign that the kid pays attention and simultaneously thinks about it and that’s again a positive thing that indicates that their brain is functioning. Stories kindles in kids doubts and questions that emanates from their simultaneous imagination along with the close attention they pay to the narrator. This cultivates since the early years an attitude of asking questions and clearing doubts whenever they gets confused and stuck in a thought, process and studies or at work.
LISTENING TO STORIES INITIATES THE JOURNEY IN TO GOOD COMMUNICATION
Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing (LSRW) are the basic communication skills. When an elder narrates story to kid, kid starts listening and acquire that. The curiosity generally observed in all kids encourages them to ask questions and speak about the story they heard to their loved ones and hence they improve their speaking skills. Slowly they learn alphabets and the simultaneous story sessions attracts them towards books and gradually in to reading. A voracious reader normally becomes a versatile writer. At least reading paves way to writing that can be in a high or low key. Hence storytelling to kids helps them to improve their communication skills.
STORYTELLING CAN ALSO BE A MEMORY GAME
After narrating stories, kids may be asked to recall the story and narrate it which helps them sharpen their memory and will be useful in their studies and activities for them. Recalling the names of characters and the places mentioned in the story, recalling the names of any peculiar or fancy things or events mentioned in the story etc serve as an activity or game to nourish the memory skills.
STORIES MAKES LEARNING EASY
Even elder students are found to memorize the facts or formulas through the form of attaching some tricky story to it just for the purpose of memorizing it. Learning things that seems to be difficult to comprehend or memorize can be made easy if it is learnt as a story or with the help of stories. Stories entertain every age groups and especially kids. Hence learning can be made easy with stories. Also the communication skills, imaginative skills, basic lessons learnt through stories also support the entire learning process as a whole.
STORYTELLING MAY THROW OPEN THE DOORS TO A CREATIVE FUTURE AND CREATIVE PROFESSION
Storytelling sometimes opens the doors of creative thinking, creative or critical writing and imaginative skills that actually paves way to becoming a writer, storyteller, movie maker or even artist or actor in future. Because imagination by each kid might be in different form and that may sometimes create a huge impact in some minds than normal and that result in creative humans in future.
STORYTELLING ALSO FUELS SOCIAL SKILLS
In addition to the communication skills, the characters of the stories inspire kids and the values exhibited by the characters will also be imbibed by the kids. This in turn will also help improve the social development of the kids.
Storytelling thus is not as simple as it sounds but is a practice that instils a lot of benefits to the kids in their overall development. Hence, parents must find time daily to narrate stories for kids and try to include stories that have something that will be of use for the development of the kids. Bed time stories are a traditional practice which has faded these days. Try to practise it for the sake of kids. Preschool teachers must try to make the story sessions as animated as possible to hold the kids attention and to kindle interest in them for stories. Hello Kids Founder Pritam Agarwal says that story sessions is a must element of their preschool syllabus and they have given special impetus for this in the pedagogy. Narrate kids stories and let them say stories to the world tomorrow.
See Also: Curriculum & Syllabus of Hello Kids Preschool
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