As parents, we are always eager to train our children to be good readers. We love to see them read more. But have we ever thought about the benefits of story telling to our children?
Children naturally love listening to stories. They view stories as magical, as stories usually allow them to explore with their imagination. Story telling teaches many things about life, culture, other living things, people from different places and their culture. Benefits of story telling sessions include:
- promote feeling of well-being and relaxation
- increase verbal proficiency and vocabulary mastery
- encourage active participation through interaction during sessions
- encourage children to communicate their thoughts and feelings
- increase creativity and imagination
- strengthens listening skills
- improves attention and focus
- create awareness of different cultures, different people from other places
- provides knowledge on things around us through fun engaging approach
- teaches children about empathy through understanding of different life experiences
- increase confidence when encourage to speak and give ideas
- increase memory skills, able to recall information from the stories accurately through interaction within the story telling group
So parents, story telling is another activity you definitely want to provide to your children!
Sharmini Abd Karim
Clinical Psychologist
