Station 5: Storytelling Summary
Using a storytelling felt board, magnets, stuffed animals, or small toys, allow your child to create and tell their own story. With younger children, you may need to model or play alongside to guide their storytelling. Letting kids of all ages make decisions about what the story will be about helps to build independence, creativity, and self-confidence!
Cognitive Benefits:
Using stories as a form of play helps to build connections in the brain, develop language skills (both expressive and receptive), builds empathy, and problem solving skills (Engel, 2016).
Social Emotional Benefits:
Engaging in a shared activity with your child strengthens the parent/caregiver-child bond (Lerner).
Positive parent engagement leads to greater development of social-emotional skills, which allows learning to take place at a deeper level (Lerner).
Engaging in play and activities like this can help a young child practice turn taking either with another child or with you. Working with your child to do the activity by taking a turn yourself and modeling prosocial behaviors helps children learn and begin to demonstrate these behaviors themselves (Child Development Centre, 2017).
Motor Development Benefits:
When done on the floor with a felt board or stuffed animals, this activity helps to develop strength in the trunk and arms (Child’s Play Therapy Center, 2014).
Manipulating storytelling items or magnets helps to further develop and refine hand and finger strength, particularly the pincer grasp (Petrie, 2015).
At Home Strategies:
If you do not have a storytelling felt board, use magnets, stuffed animals, or small toys to tell a story.
Younger children may need an adult to help create the story. Try starting it and seeing how your child chooses to finish it.
Older preschoolers can choose to retell a story they know or create a new story on their own.
References
Child Development Centre. (2017, March 17). Promoting Turn Taking with Peers. Child Development Centre. https://www.cdchk.org/parent-tips/promoting-turn-taking-with-peers/ 
Child’s Play Therapy Center. (2014, May 30). Core Strength, Why it is Important for Your Child. Child’s Play Therapy Center. https://www.childsplaytherapycenter.com/core-strength-important-child/ 
Engle, S. (2016, April 18). Storytelling In The First Three Years. Zero To Three. https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/1057-storytelling-in-the-first-three-years 
Lerner, C. (n.d.). To Find the Roots of School Readiness, Look Back to the Beginning. Zero to Three. https://www.zerotothree.org/resources/162-to-find-the-roots-of-school-readiness-look-back-to-the-beginning 
Petrie, J. (2015, May 20). The Importance of Fine Motor Activities in the Early Childhood Years. Bright Stars. http://www.brightstars.org/blog/post/the-importance-of-fine-motor-activities-in-the-early-childhood-years-see-mo

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