Why
are Stories Important for Children?
Stories play a vital role in the growth and development of
children. The books they read and the characters they get to know can become
like friends. It’s also good for children to understand that books are a useful
source of information and that good reading skills are important for success in
their future lives. Reading also helps children with their confidence levels,
coping with feelings and language and learning.
Confidence
Levels
Children who can read well are more likely to have higher
confidence levels. This will benefit them in school as they’ll feel able to
participate fully in activities. Another part of building confidence and
self-esteem is knowing where you fit into the world. Stories can help with this
process by showing children what people’s lives are like where they live and in
other parts of the world.
Language
and Learning
Stories are a great way to introduce new words and ideas into
a child’s language – starting with picture books for the very young, working up
to more complex novels for teenagers. Stories can help children learn about
concepts such as shape, size, space and color, up and down, inside and outside,
numbers and the names of objects. They can also teach children about everyday
tasks, such as how to brush their teeth, taking care of animals, cleaning and
tidying and preparing food.
Stories are also useful for teaching more complex ideas, such
as the importance of sharing, the passage of time, compassion for others. They
can be useful when trying to explain traumatic events, such as family break-ups
and bereavement.
Fiction based on real-life can also help children with their
own life experience – it shows them how diverse the world is and that some
people’s lives are vastly different to theirs.
And what’s so great about learning through stories is that the
process is done in a natural way. There’s no actual teaching involved at all,
they learn from simply reading the story.
Relaxation
Reading stories can be helpful for relaxation, before bedtime
for example. They allow children to forget the stresses and strains of the day
and indulge in fantasy for a while. The soothing familiarity of a much-loved
story, the rhyming and repetition in a picture book, plus the sense of security
that time spent reading together can foster, all help the child to relax.
Development
of Imagination
Stories help to develop a child’s imagination by introducing
new ideas into their world – ideas about fantastical worlds, other planets,
different points in time and invented characters. It’ll encourage the children
to realize that they can, and should, imagine anything they want. The beauty of
stories is that they can be super realistic or incredibly fantastical. They can
be reading about children growing up in the same situation as them one minute
and about another species, Martians holidaying on Jupiter for example, the
next.
Coping
With Feelings
When children read stories that contain feelings it can help
them understand and accept their own feelings. It helps them understand that
there are other children who feel the same way and they are not alone. This
helps the child understand that feelings are normal and should be expressed.
Watching their responses to the feelings of the characters in the stories will
give you some idea of how a child feels about certain situations and emotions.
For example, how the child responds to the character in the story feeling sad
or scared will give you some idea of how the child thinks.
Enjoy,
Ms. Nora Sierra
EC Assistant Principal
Discovery School
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