This article has been written by storytelling specialists, Tonya and Natasha, from Little Creative Days
The importance of language and communication
Did you know…that the more words a child knows by age 8 is the biggest predictor of their future success? Regardless of their social and economic background!
Therefore, having a good command of language and vocabulary can help a child succeed in life. This is because it enables them to express themselves and communicate effectively and gives them the skills for the future.
Supporting development of language and communication…
A parent’s role in developing their child’s verbal skills is crucial. Reading and encouraging a love of books plays a big part in development, however, not everyone feels confident reading to their children. This can be for a number of reasons:
- Perhaps English is not their first language
- Difficulties in reading themselves
- No interest in books.
- Or simply that they can’t find the time.
But there are ways to overcome these problems and that’s where learning to make up stories can really help. Storytelling has a number of benefits for children’s development apart from building their speaking and listening skills. It also develops thinking skills, memory and their social and emotional development.
Games for parents to incorporate to support language development
- An ideal game to play with children when out and about would be to pick a person at random and then make up a story about what that person does for a living and where they might be going to. Or maybe if they are in a shop pick out a couple of items and the children need to fit those items into a story, e.g. a mop and a packet of peas.
- Another little game could be to take a well-known fairy-tale, change the characters in it and make up the story. So the 3 Little Pigs might be the 3 Little spacemen and then see what fun they can have. Spacemen finding a house of straw and a house of sticks could be quite amusing and that’s not to mention what those spacemen might make of the big bad wolf!
You’ll be amazed at what the children can come up with!
Little Creative Days
Tonya and Natasha, the storytelling sisters, are authors of a series of books about a little dog called Pojo who gets itchy paws and goes off on adventures.
They have won multiple awards for their puppet making kits that accompany the stories including Teach Early Years Excellence award for Communication and Language Resource.
