Child Developement

Stories spark our imagination and stimulate curiosity. Storytelling promotes both language and emotional development. The benefits of storytelling are many. From allowing children to express themselves to helping parents bond with their children and understanding complex emotions. And while there is never a bad time to read a good story, it's even more amazing to create one of your own!

Things You Will Need

• Craft paper
• Pencils and colours
• Pair of Scissors
• Cardboard or Sticks
• A table/ stage
• An audience

Learning Objectives

While you follow the activity, ensure you focus on,

• Language Skills: Character and object names, verbal and non-verbal communication 
• Fine Motor: Drawing/ writing/ scribbling/ pasting (tripod grip)
• Cognitive Skills: Hand-eye coordination, visual processing, creative thinking and imagination
• Life Skills: Self-engagement, expressing emotions, and self-confidence 

Let's Get Started :)

Watch the activity videos below, and follow along. This will help you conduct your activity with ease

• Part 1: Creating your characters
  Characters drive plots. Get inspired to create great characters by observing the environment around you. Give them names and a background story. How do they look? What are they feeling today? Do they have a secret superpower?

• Part 2: Telling your story
  Create visual aids for your characters, the setting, the plot, the conflict, and the resolution. Ask the children to tell you more about each of these. Prompt with open-ended questions and pay rapt attention as your child takes you through a journey of their creation.

You can also use the printables below as starting points for your storytelling journey:

• Characters 

• Objects or props

• Emotions

• Sample settings and

• A storyboarding template!

Adaptations and Variations

Going multi-sensory

Use a multi-sensory approach. Include smells, and songs, and temperature in your stories. Bring your characters and scenes to life with sound effects. 

Creating sound effects via drumming, clicking and snapping can also help your children communicate emotions better.

For younger kids 

Start with a single character at a time. 

For older kids

Deepen comprehension and reach higher-order thinking skills by following up the session with many questions. Also, challenge the child by changing a key occurrence that happened in the story. What would happen if a character didn’t do an action a certain way? How would the story then unfurl?

For children with blindness

In addition to going multi-sensory, use tangible objects and puppets to represent your characters. You can also use textures as trigger objects.

Storytelling can give children a creative outlet, help build imagination, literary and public speaking skills. But most of all, nurturing their interest and appreciating their talent can improve self-esteem and strengthen parent-child bonding. So go ahead and get them started today.