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Prolonged periods of staying at home during this COVID-19 pandemic may mean fewer opportunities for children to interact with peers and others outside their homes. Research tells us that these interactions are important for children’s language and social development and well-being, especially for those between 1 and 5 years old.
In their book ‘Building Resilience in Children Through Conversational Storytelling’, authors, Anna Filipi and Maryanne Theobald, highlight the importance of conversational storytelling as we continue to stay at home in a worldwide effort to curb the spread of COVID-19.
“Encouraging children to develop their storytelling abilities can foster resilience and create lasting change, even beyond COVID-19 – changing how we connect with young children and how they perceive themselves and enabling them to become confident and effective citizens.”
As children share experiences and events in their lives, it helps them develop their own sense of identity, build strong connections with people, and gain confidence and the ability to communicate ideas, fostering their language and social skills. Sharing stories in different languages can also be a great opportunity to build on their vocabulary! For example, your child can share a story about their best friend to you in English, and then share a similar or different story to Ah Gong, Kakak, or Paati in Mandarin Chinese, Malay, Tamil, or any other language(s) your child knows.
Storytelling helps children connect with other people, and they learn to understand their own feelings and those of others. Disrupted schedules due to changes in in-person routines can be distressing for children and, when adults create a healthy space for them to share their stories, they are provided an opportunity to heal. Regular storytelling, even in short bursts, also helps reduce feelings of isolation and loneliness. It enables them to build connections with family members and caregivers as they are encouraged to acknowledge and express their feelings about events and talk about themselves.
Here are some storytelling strategies you (and other family members or caregivers) can use to help develop your child(ren)’s language skills:
- Create a story routine by sharing stories about what has happened during the day, such as what you had for lunch, or how you’ve spent the day learning or working. Feel free to prompt questions to encourage your child to expand on a story’s characters, activities, and events! Depending on your child’s age, you can also bring up something that is going on in the world and share your feelings about it, then giving your child a chance to respond.
- Share stories using different languages to encourage, practise, and build on your child’s bi- or multilingual, social, and academic language skills. Sharing stories with family members, friends, or family friends who speak different languages is especially important for bi- and multilingual children.
- Create a ‘talking box’. This can be a great way to start a conversation as you take turns choosing special or everyday items to hide inside a box (or a basket!) and then use them to start a story. For younger children, try playing around with sound words. They can be sounds that you hear everyday, such as a car going “beep beep!” or a made-up sound, like going “wooooo” when you use a hairdryer.
- Take a ‘story walk’ around the house, entering different areas such as the living room, the kitchen, or even their bedroom, and create a story with your child(ren) from the perspective of a pet or a different family member/caregiver.
- Make a ‘travel story’ about places your family might like to visit when travel is possible again.
As we continue to join in with the nation’s effort in curbing the spread of COVID-19, we want to let you know how you can still get involved in our journey to discovering the role of Singapore’s multi-lingual environment on children’s language development. Follow our Facebook page for more updates!
This editorial was adapted from: https://bold.expert/building-resilience-in-children-through-conversational-storytelling/