Magazine June 2019

How to help parents
boost their child’s
vocabulary
A child learning to speak their first words is one of those magical
times and once they start, there’s usually no stopping them. But,
children need to know how to put those words into context and
there’s no better way of doing that than with a story!
As Philip Pulman said: “Storytelling is one of the most important,
most humane, most liberating and most democratic things that
human beings can do.”
Reading to their child from a young
age is one of the best things a parent
can do for them (as well as feed and
love them obviously). But sadly, not
all parents can or do. This can be for
any number of reasons. It may be
that they weren’t read to as a child,
so they don’t associate the benefits
of reading to their children or maybe
they struggle with their own literacy
skills and are frightened to admit it.
But being able to make up stories
can help to overcome some of those
issues and it’s not as difficult as you
might think. Believe it or not, we tell
stories every day, it’s what make us
human!
THE BENEFITS OF A GOOD STORY
Improves language
Listening to stories helps us put
things into context and this is how we
learn best. It can also invoke a love of
language and develops vocabulary.
After all, who doesn’t like trying to
use a pun or two?
Bonding
Children with the biggest emotional
and behavioural difficulties respond
best to stories and it’s a great way
for parents to bond with their child
too. It’s spending that special time
with them that’s so important.
Cognitive
Stories develop our thinking and
reasoning skills. They help to develop
imagination and help us to paint a
picture as well as developing our
memories.
Social & emotional
Stories help us to understand
emotions, they give us an insight
into the minds of others and can be
used to help us deal with difficult
situations.
Morals
Stories help children develop their
capacity to think about moral issues as
they have an innate interest in fairness.
So, if you would like to help the
parents of the children in your setting
be more engaged, there are lots of
ideas you can suggest to them:-
HOW TO CREATE STORIES
1. What toys does the child have?
Get them to make up a story
about what their favourite toy
does when their child is at
nursery. All our stories feature a
little dog called Pojo, who gets
itchy paws when his owner, Sam,
goes to sleep or school. Children
will love making up a story about
their toy going on an adventure.
2. Are there stories from within the
family that the parents can retell?
Children find it fascinating hearing
stories of what their parents or
grandparents did when they were
little.
3. Use props. Puppets are great
as it allows the child to act as
the storyteller. Or why not get a
box and put a variety of random
things into it such as jewellery,
candles, bus or train tickets and
a toy and then make up a story
incorporating those things in the
box. It’s amazing to hear the
stories they come out with.
4. Why not adapt some wellknown
fairy tales by changing
the characters so, for example,
change “The Three Little Pigs” to
‘three little spacemen’ and see
how it changes the story.
5. Play a story relay – one person
starts the story with one sentence
and the other follows on; keep
it going until you’ve finished
your story. If they’re out for a
picnic, why not use the location
and a person they can see and
incorporate them into a story?
SO HOW DO YOU RUN A SESSION TO
ENGAGE PARENTS?
1. Put parents at ease by starting off
with a short, fun game such as
the storytelling relay (mentioned
above), by getting everyone to
say a sentence of the story – we
often use “Cinderella” with some
hilarious adaptations.
2. Give them enough time to practice
one game before going onto
another; this will build confidence.
3. Why not start a storytelling club
after school/nursery and make it
a regular social event?
4. Be prepared – plan what activities
and stories you want to cover.
5. Make sure you tell parents why
stories are important and make
sure they know their role.
The key to it all is to have fun with
making up stories. The more you do it,
the easier it gets, I promise!! I’ve lost
count of the times someone has come
on one of our workshops thinking they
couldn’t make up a story and by the
end, they are usually some of the best
storytellers.
SO GO ON, HAVE A GO AND SEE
WHAT YOU CAN DO!
Tonya Meers
Tonya Meers is the Chief
Storyteller at Little Creative
Days. Tonya believes that
stories are the most versatile
and powerful educational
tool you can use and there
isn’t anything that you can’t
teach through a story.
She is co-author of the
multi-award-winning
Pojo series of educational
creative storytelling kits,
which have won awards
for their promotion of
communication and
language skills for early
years and primary schoolaged
children.
In addition, she and her
storytelling sister/business
partner also deliver training
and workshops for early
years practitioners, local
authorities and primary
schools. They offer a range
of interactive workshops
to encourage, engage and
enable children to develop a
love of literacy.
You can contact Tonya at
Little Creative Days via
email@littlecreativedays.co.uk,
on Twitter @littlecreative or
via Facebook.
If you would
like us to come
into your setting to run a
workshop on how to engage
parents, email me at:
email@littlecreativedays.co.uk
We also run a free, same-day,
parent workshop following
any of our paid
workshops.
36 Parenta.com June 2019 37