Developing the Art of Story Telling in Young Children
Teaching children the art of telling a story develops self confidence and social and communication skills.
Here’s some great tips to spark your child's imagination and stimulate curiosity.
- Be expressive when reading to your child.
Use body language and voice to show your expression. It will help them develop their own expressive side.
- Tell them a good story.
Listening to great stories will develop a love of stories and capture their imagination and excitement that a good story brings.
- Use props as visual cues.
Young children love using props to tell a story. Some ideas for props include puppets, magnets and magnet boards, finger puppets and soft toys.
- Start the story for your child.
They can roll with your idea and use their imaginations to progress the story.
- Be attentive when listening to your child’s story.
Be present. It will give your child confidence to know they have your attention and that you enjoyed their story.
- Have fun.
Laugh at silly stories that don’t make sense. Marvel at your child’s imagination
- Use wordless books.
Encourage young children to tell the wordless story to you. The visual cues will spark their imaginations.
- If they get ‘stuck’, ask a question to fuel their imagination.
Open ended questions can help develop the story line for a young child. Eg: “And what happened to the platypus after that?”
- Keep it simple: A young child’s story can consist of a few sentences.
Revisit the story a few days later. Children like repetition. They may come up with a different ending.
- Clap wildly at the end of the story. Applause please!
Our Portable Magnet Boards are a great resource for using as a storyboard so children can use their imaginations as they create a scene. The beauty of this open ended resource is that every time they play, they can come up with a different story line. Our re-usable magnets are so robust that they can be used over and over again.
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