10 benefits of story telling for little minds
The magic of story telling……..
It’s about 9:00 p.m. Both of my boys are hurrying up for getting into bed. They have finished their dinner eagerly and brushed their teeth quickly. Moreover they have also helped me in kitchen for night clean so that I can also join them in bed as soon as possible because they had to listen a story.
As I get into the bed and make myself comfortable in cozy blanket, I start the story
Once upon a time a boy was going for higher study to another city. That city was very far away and he had to travel with a group of people. He and his mother packed his bags for the journey. He packed all the basic accessories into the bag but his mother sew some silver coins inside his shirt’s pocket. When he was about to leave his mother gave him an advice. She said "my dear son!
Never tell a lie in your life. Always speak truth because it will lead you towards success".
Boy promised her mother that he will always speak truth through thick and thin and went off to join the travellers group and started his journey. As soon as they reached in the middle of a desert, they were attacked by some robbers. All of the travellers were terribly frightened. Robbers asked them to drop all the precious things or money they have in their sacks. All the people started dropping their valuables. Boy tried to open his pocket to take out his coin but could not do so. He called one of the robbers and asked him to take out his money from inside his sewed pocket. Robber was very surprised to hear about his stitched money and took him to his chief. He told him about all the matter and coins. Chief confirmed again about coins and opened his stitched pocket. All of them were very surprised at boy’s behaviour and asked him why he didn’t lie and save his money. Then the boy told them that he promised his mother to always speak truth. Robbers were very impressed by little boy. They gave back all his money and other things of travellers and at once decided to leave that notorious business.
As I finish my story, we make little conversation about story. Then they hug me tightly recite their night pray and go to sleep.
Why I am writing all this?
Because I am flashing back to my psychology class where one day one of my teachers was emphasizing upon the advantages of story telling and asked us
“ you must tell a lot of stories to your kids whenever you have kids." Because story telling has exceptional powers. It can play a lead role in your child’s brain development, emotional intelligence, social behaviour and relationships.
And I am very eager to share all these magical powers of story telling with all of you. Let’s have a look at
Cognitive benefits
1: Stories enhance vocabulary of children. They get to know about so many new words while listening to stories. In our daily routine we use some specific words in our conversation whereas in stories, there is a stock of new words. When children hear them and know about their meanings they also try to use it in their daily conversation.
2: Stories take children into new realms of imagination. When they hear a well crafted story, they start to build their own characters that will surely be different from other kid. They fill colours in stories with their imagination. Thus their creative power increases and their minds open up for new ideas. They become able to think out of the box.
3: Stories build problem solvers. Children who are listening to stories regularly become better problem solvers because they have learnt to think out of the box. Their minds are ready to explore new ideas. They are capable of critically analyze the situations and build their solution. They are ready to accept failure and believe on try try again.
4: Stories modify them into a better person. They knew about virtues and moral values like kindness, honesty and gratitude through stories. So what you want your child to become, narrate them.
5: Stories produce good listeners. Kids are often considered as bad listeners because their attention span is too short. But story telling can enhance their attention span with an increase in their curiosity level.
Social benefits
1: Story telling is a great way of enhancing communication skills of children. They learn how to communicate with others as they listen to enriched communication of characters of stories. They also learn to wait for their turn to speak. They learn to accept others point of view.
2: Stories help children to build relationships and bondings. Most of all, their bonding with parents touch a new heights. When they listen stories laying in the warm lap of mother, they feel that warmth, affection and love. They feel safe and protected.
3: Stories create empathy in children.They learn to empathize with others through fitting in character’s shoe.
Emotional benefits;
1: Stories teach children to know and express their emotions of love, happiness, anger and sadness . They learn to name their feelings and express them through words as they listen through the mouth of characters in stories.
2: Stories explain how to manage emotions of anger and hate. They inculcate tolerance in little listeners and they learn to be more patient and tolerant.
3: Stories about fantasy or fairy tales are also believed to lower the anxiety and stress level in children.
In short
“If you want your children to be smart, tell them stories. If you want them to be brilliant, tell them more stories.”
(Albert Einstein)
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