Creative ways to improve language and communication
Posted by EYR Team on 19th Aug 2019
read more
This article has been written by storytelling specialists, Tonya and Natasha, from Little Creative Days
Children have an amazing capacity for creativity, their imagination holds no bounds. Children also love stories and it’s a great way to enhance their language and communication skills. So combining stories with creativity can be very powerful, and that’s what we call creative storytelling.
Creative storytelling is about combining stories with creative activities and it will help children to really engage with a story. Activities such as puppet making and role play bring stories to life and help children imagine themselves in the story, and it’s that interaction that’s the important part!!
By making puppets of the characters the children engage with the story so much more because they take ownership of it. It’s also good if you’ve got repeated phrases as it encourages the children to interact. It helps them to form the words so they are developing their vocabulary and building confidence at the same time. Such phrases also act as a hook, often warning the listener that something is about to happen and enables the storyteller to build suspense and excitement. The children love this and it also helps to develop their listening skills.
Of course you don’t just need them to make puppets to have that interaction. Why not take something from the story, get them to make it and tell you a story about it. For example after telling them the story of Cinderella we’ve had the children make up a shoe and then tell a story about a lost shoe. The children loved it and came up with some fantastic stories.
So how do you choose a story if you’re planning a creative storytelling session?
- Look for a story with a hook – something that will hold their interest.
- Choose stories with lots of dialogue
- Look for repetition and rhyme
- Look for a story with multiple characters
- Look for ways to use props and puppets.
So the next time you read a story to the children why not turn it into a creative storytelling session and see the difference in the children’s interaction.
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.