What are the benefits of storytelling in primary education?

What are the benefits of storytelling in primary education?

Story telling is a way of helping a child develop holistically as it helps to engage with their imagination taking them to a fantasy world where they can escape to and be creative, bringing to life whatever they desire as it enhances their willingness to express themselves and put their thoughts and feelings forward, keeping an open mind and promoting free thinking (Shah, 2017).

Communication is a large factor in storytelling, as stories can be interpreted in different ways and you can be in sync with the person telling the story allowing your brain to be fully engaged in the image and take you into the story tellers mind this is the power of storytelling as you are fully engaged into the story and try to be two steps ahead by trying to predict what will happen next, this shows how strongly the brain engages through communication and listening, it awakens all senses as you put yourself into the story (Morgan, 2015).

As a child this was one of the best experiences as we all sat down, and the teacher would tell us a story, I got to relive this experience as we went out into the forest and created a story using the outdoor setting, with sticks, leaves, trees and even soil about fairies and how they protected themselves from the giants. We built a fairy house came up with the story as a group and told it to our peers, we found it was a refreshing way to recapture the feeling of falling deep into creating a story. It also showed how story telling is not only for children, but also how adults can enjoy a story be taken into the tales told, for example the Harry Potter series has around 56% of readers that were over the

age of 25 (Frankel, 2011) showing the large audience of adults who read this fantasy fiction novel.

 

 

Stories are beneficial for everyone including for those who are, who are isolated, struggle with illnesses, have family problems, are depressed or even who are poor (Medlicott, 2018, p.8) for these people stories can be an escape or they can be a way to help with their reality as Worthington found they “allow child readers a safe space in which to explore their personal and social anxieties and to vent, in their imagination and/or unconsciously, their own feelings of anger and resentment towards the adults who control their world,” (2012, p.124) which can benefit their health and well being as they are able to face problems and get their voice heard through storytelling.

Storytelling and reading stories will allow the child’s English language skills to develop well. Researchers have found that the more children are read to the better vocabulary they have, as stories contain a wide variety of words which they are likely to pick up on, they also tend to question words in stories that are told to them if they do not understand, again enhancing their vocabulary (Kate, 2014). Kate also found that asking questions about the stories and talking about it together was important as it helps them to think about the story, also seeing if they can think of alternate endings or if the child can understand whether there was a deeper meaning and even relating the story to real life, this can open the children’s mind to a wide range of interpretations allowing them to be cognitive about the story meanwhile develop and gain skills (2014).

Stories being told to children about different cultures, religions, different countries and having a diverse range of characters for young children to understand and be educated about is important as this can help develop respect for other countries and their cultures (KUMON, 2019). During one of my seminars we were told to bring a story to life using story sacks, each group had a story sack and my groups book had an Islamic theme with a moral behind the story which I found was a really fun and enjoyable way to learn about a different culture.

Donaldson also agreed with the importance of understanding different cultures and social backgrounds as he found that even though different countries expressed their curriculum  differently, they all had the same aim ‘to develop in their learners the necessary attitudes, values, skills and knowledge they need in order to achieve success and fulfilment as engaged thinkers and ethical citizens with an entrepreneurial spirit’ (2015, p.22).

Storytelling allows many vital life skills to be attained such as problem solving, this occurs when children are deeply engaged in the tales that are being told and their minds start to wonder what is going to happen next as the climaxes and problems within the story are arising, the children will then think about how to solve the problem and try to come up with different solutions, this enhances their problem solving skills as they adopt this way of thinking and will naturally apply this to their life but also this shows their development of self-regulation (Eden Castle, 2018).

Sullivan and Brown found that reading for pleasure was found to be more important for children’s cognitive development between ages 10 and 16 than their parents’ level of education (2013). This highlights the beneficial outcomes that must be gained from story telling and reading. It is a holistic process you don’t only gain pleasure and enjoyment from reading, you learn social norms, it can have a positive affect on your health and emotional well being but also gain many skills needed in life which the children will unknowingly adopt. The way the teacher helps to encourage these skills and present them to the children can be very effective. An activity was set for us to learn effective ways to do this, we chose a story from arrange of Roald Dahl books, then chose a chapter from the book to use for an activity which was not too difficult just to warm up their minds for the next task, but the task did allow the children to think cognitively and would show they had an understanding of the book. The second task, which needed more thinking and imagination was a writing activity to be creative and put themselves into the story as a character, this task would have been more challenging but would have boosted their writing, language, problem solving, grammar, punctuation and presentation skills.

Donaldson, G. (2015). Successful Futures: Independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales. Caerdydd: Llywodraeth Cenedlaethol Cymru.

Eden Castle, (2018). The Importance & Amazing Benefits of Storytelling for Children. Available at: https://www.edencastleschool.com/the-importance-amazing-benefits-of-storytelling-for-children [Accessed January 2019]

Kate, (2014) Why asking questions is important. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/cbeebiesgrownups/entries/2dbb4532-3bc2-33b7-a3da-bd0713c8bd28 [Accessed December 2018]

KUMON, (2019) The benefits of storytelling. Available at: https://www.kumon.co.uk/blog/the-benefits-of-storytelling/ [Accessed February 2019]

Medlicott, M. (2018). Storytelling and Story-Reading in Early Years. 1st ed. London: Jessica Kingsley, p.8.

Morgan, N. (2015) What Storytelling Is And Is Not: Forbes. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorgan/2015/04/14/what-storytelling-is-and-is-not/#104097eb1722 [Accessed December 2018]

Shah, P. (2017) 10 Amazing Benefits Of Storytelling For Kids: Mom Junction. Available at: https://www.momjunction.com/articles/benefits-story-telling-yor-kids_0036903/?ref=content [Accessed February 2019]

Sullivan and Brown, (2013). Reading for pleasure puts children ahead in the classroom, study finds. Available at: https://cls.ucl.ac.uk/reading-for-pleasure-puts-children-ahead-in-the-classroom-study-finds/ [Accessed January 2019]

Worthington, Heather (2012). An Unsuitable Read for a Child? Reconsidering Crime and Violence in Roald Dahl’s Fiction for Children. In Roald Dahl, Alston, A. and Butler, C. (eds.). Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan. pp. 123–141.