The Magic of Storytelling
No child will ever pass up an opportunity to hear a story. And it needn’t be a new one every time. Children happily hear the same story several times with the same sense of wonder and fascination as they did the first time. And not without a reason; it opens up their world to vocabulary and expression which they crave. Children who did not have the luxury of listening stories often find it difficult to express themselves as they grow up.
The first thing that storytelling does is that it promotes a feeling of well-being and relaxation for the child as they get engrossed in the story. They feel happy and secure when told stories. At the same time, storytelling increases the willingness of a child to communicate thoughts and feelings that would otherwise be internalised. As the story unfolds, it makes the child imagine everything in the mind which makes them quite imaginative. It also makes them very communicative as they learn and look for new sounds and words to express their feelings. And around the age of four and five, they become quite adept at telling stories themselves! Be it about Goldilocks, a toy, an imaginative character or even tampons, they will find a way to weave a story around it!
Storytelling ensures that they need to pay attention. This in turn enhances their listening skills as they absorb all that is told to them. No detail is missed out – in fact if you skip a part, you may well be reminded of the same quite vociferously! And when this activity is done in a group, it encourages cooperation between children. They also pick up the finer nuances of acting as the volume of the storyteller’s voice, the tempo, tone, facial expressions and gestures all become part of the story. Children are great observers and they pick this up too! This eventually lays the foundation of making them good storytellers and actors themselves. There is a lot more to storytelling than just telling a story!
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