Stories have the power to inspire, teach, and influence. Sharing them with children allows them to answer the questions about things they’ve always been curious about. That’s why it’s essential to engage them with storytelling activities from a very young age. In this post, we will list the benefits of storytelling for children.
Storytelling creates an understanding of various cultures
Telling stories to your little ones lets them expand their knowledge of different lands and traditions. It creates an appreciation for other countries and different cultures.
Studies have shown that storytelling fosters empathy in children as they put themselves in the shoes of the story’s protagonist. They learn how to consider one’s actions and reactions and discover the reasons behind those.
Storytelling improves imagination, curiosity, and communication
Reading stories to your children boosts their enthusiasm to express their feelings and thoughts. Tell them to discuss the characters and plot with you. Provide hints about how every character might advance the story and ask why a specific character acts a certain way.
Encourage them to ask questions actively and share how they feel about the story during your storytelling sessions.
Reading is the most efficient activity for expanding vocabulary, as children can learn new words and their use in sentences. In case they don’t understand a word, it’s very likely they’ll ask you to explain what it is. Let them ask these kinds of questions.
One of the benefits of storytelling for children is that it enhances creativity compelling them to imagine everything in the book—the characters, the setting, and more. Using just their imagination, they can create the world themselves without any given imagery.
Storytelling imparts good values and virtues
Our little ones love listening to different stories. When you spend enough time reading books to children, you can impart virtues that they can carry until they grow up.
Choose books with characters whose values are suitable for children to emulate. When you invest time to read such stories, children will learn the importance of compassion, kindness, honesty, wisdom, and many more.
Storytelling develops social skills, listening skills, and focus
Storytelling encourages children to listen to the speaker and concentrate on what they’re saying. It instills patience as they let others speak. Children also start to understand that not everyone will have the same thoughts and interpretations.
As they focus on the storyteller, they can enhance their listening skills.
Storytelling enhances verbal skills
Nowadays, stories are part of every early childhood education program. Stories are a way to engagingly teach the use of a language along with its words and process. In this process, children can improve their interaction and pronunciation skills.
As they read the sentences aloud, they can learn more quickly. Parents are encouraged to introduce new words during the storytelling session.
Storytelling develops EQ
Storytelling can improve children’s emotional control and emotional intelligence (EQ). It teaches them to be thoughtful about others.
As they listen to different stories, their ability to think for the welfare of others develops subconsciously. As a result, they become better persons when they grow up.
This facet of children is something that parents need to consider significantly. With improved emotional intelligence, children become better at understanding that their actions impact others.
Storytelling improves your child’s memory
Help children sharpen their memory through storytelling sessions. After reading them a story, review some points with your children to determine if they paid attention. Ask them questions to see how much they can remember about the plot and characters.
Storytelling creates confidence to face life’s challenges
A lot of stories for children show a protagonist overcoming different adversities to achieve a happy ending. They’re a great way of inspiring children to be strong in the face of many obstacles coming their way.
Choose stories that present difficult situations and how the main character handled everything. This concept will help children devise solutions that can help them deal with challenges.
We at Launchpad Early Education are aware of the benefits of storytelling for children. We hold engaging storytelling sessions at our center to help improve a variety of skills. Contact us today for more information.