Why stories are important

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The text for this topic is copyright Parenting SA, Government of South Australia.

Stories help children to cope with a lot of the feelings and problems that they experience in their day. Story time can be a special caring time with you that your children will remember all their lives. Whether they are the stories you tell, or stories in books, stories are one of the ways that children learn to enjoy reading. Books, and the people they read about in books can become like friends. Children can also learn that books are a way to find out useful and important information. Many people look back with pleasure on their favourite stories from childhood.

It is now known that reading aloud to babies and children is so important in their early years and has an impact on their overall development and future learning.

If you speak a language other than English, share stories in this language with your children.  

Why read with children?

• Our language is the way we communicate with others. It helps us to understand ourselves and to make sense of the world. Reading is an important way to learn language and learn about the world.
• Reading is something that many of us enjoy and that we all need to be able to do. Every time we go out we are reading signs, labels and directions.
• Letting children see you read lots of different things such as letters, cards, recipes and newsletters gives them positive messages about reading.
• Children who enjoy reading are likely to become confident learners.
• Reading can become a favourite hobby which children go on to enjoy all their lives.
• Reading and/or story time can be special time for both parents and children. If it’s a relaxed and happy time, it helps build good relationships between you and your child. It helps build a sense of security and good self-esteem.
• Stories can help children to deal with the problems and fears that they experience in everyday life.

Note: If you don’t enjoy reading or find it a struggle, you still need to show your children that reading is important. You can have books around the house and you can tell your children that you wish you had had the chance to learn to like reading.

How books and stories help children

• Books help language and thinking.
• Young children can learn about the world from picture books.
• Showing simple pictures and then saying the name of what is in the picture helps even very young children learn what things are called.
• Children can learn many things from books—about size, colour, shape; about what things look like; and about people and their lives.
• They learn about numbers and space. For example from The Three Bears they can learn that there were three bears, one father bear, one mother bear and one baby bear. They also learn about such things as big and little, inside and outside. And all this happens without any teaching—they learn it just from enjoying the story.
• Stories help to develop children’s imaginations.

Stories help children cope with feelings

• When you read or tell a story which contains feelings your child is helped to accept his feelings and to understand how others feel. He learns that he is not alone and that other children may feel the same as he does. This helps him to know that his feelings are okay.
• You can also learn to understand how your child feels when you see him respond to the feelings in the story. If he really likes a book it may be because it has special meaning for him and is helping him with his feelings.
• When you read a story to your child it can show that you understand how he feels. For example if you are reading a story about another child (or animal) who is frightened of the dark, it helps your child to know that you understand that it is easy to be frightened of the dark when you are very young.
• Books help to deal with fears. Books about something your child fears can help your child to cope with the fears. Hearing or reading the story many times can help children manage their fears. These are the books which you might need to read over and over again if your child wants you to.

Stories help develop confidence

• Part of building self-esteem and confidence is knowing where you fit in the world. Stories told by parents and grandparents about family history—‘When Mummy was a little girl’—help your child develop this sense of belonging. This is even more important if you have come from another place or your family has been split up.
• Special story time at bedtime can help your child look forward to going to bed, to enjoy being close to you and to relax, ready for sleep.
• Books can help your child to escape for a while from the stresses and pressures of their world as the story takes her imagination to other wonderful places.
• Most importantly your child will thrive on spending time with you.
• Reading and telling stories to your child can become a very special sharing time which helps your children to learn to love books and to develop a sense of being a lovable person. Many children remember their story times for the rest of their lives.

Tips for story tellers

• Whether you read or tell stories to your children you will be helping them in many ways. It is best if you can do some of both. Some of us don’t like telling stories very much, others don’t like reading. Do what works best for you and your child.
• You can get picture books that don’t have any words, so you can make up the story about the pictures for your child.
• Follow your child’s lead when you are reading or telling stories so she can be a partner in the reading time—read the bits that she especially likes over and over again, stop when she wants to stop, skip the bits that she wants to skip.
• Be guided by your child as to what she likes but try out a range of books/stories so she has a choice to explore.
• Lists of books for your child’s age can often be found at your local library. School and preschool libraries usually have large range of books. If you have never been to a library before it could feel strange at first. Try to go on a week day when the library is not busy. Ask the librarian to help you find your way through the children’s section. Librarians are pleased to show you what the library has to offer and trained to know what books children are likely to enjoy.
• Libraries in the ACT have lots of children’s books in other languages. Some libraries have more of one language than another. Ask the librarian for help if you cannot find children’s books in the language/s you want.    
• Borrow a number of books each time you go. If your child especially likes one and wants it over and over again, this is the one to buy and own.
• Browse through bookshops or garage sales. Often really good books can be bought as paperback and are not very expensive.
• It is enjoying the reading that counts. Starting with cheap books from the supermarket is a good way to help children to have some books to own.
• Take your children to a pantomime or children’s theatre where they will see stories acted out—or go just for the fun.
• Give your child books for birthdays, Christmas, name days or just because you want to give your child a special treat. They are great presents.

Babies

• Young babies will enjoy the warmth of your company and the sound and rhythm of your voice, long before they can understand the words.
• Babies can start to learn to enjoy books from birth as you show them brightly coloured pictures and name the objects or sing a rhyme about the picture. They learn reading is ‘feeling good’ time.
• It brings together the things they need most to grow and develop—closeness, safety, touch, seeing, hearing and learning about sounds as well as learning gradually what they mean.

Toddlers

• Make story time part of your special bedtime routine every night.
• Stories need to be simple and short because toddlers have short attention spans.
• Toddlers enjoy books with colourful pictures, simple rhymes and stories about things they know.
• Very young children often want their favourite stories over and over again and this can be important to them as they grow and learn.
• Two-year-olds will often correct you if you even leave out a word or will enjoy saying some of the words as they get to know their loved stories.

Preschoolers

• Let your children choose books or stories.
• Stories can be acted out by you and your child.
• Children can make pictures or models of stories.
• Ask your children to tell you a story—and listen to them. Show you are interested.
• Stories should still not be too long—find books that you can start and finish in one go.
• Take your child to the library and let him select some books to read from the section for his age. He may not like them all, but he will probably like some and he is learning to use a library. Ask the librarian about borrowing tapes.
• Letting your child choose some of the books to borrow (and choose the stories you tell) will help him to learn that he is a partner in the reading time. He will start to think about books as something he can choose for himself.

School beginners

• Don’t make story time a reading lesson—it is a time for sharing, relaxing and fun.
• Don’t expect too much too soon when your children are learning to read stories for themselves. It takes a long time after children can read before they read well enough to really enjoy the stories they are reading. They will need you to read stories to them long after they can read for themselves—and there is something special about having stories read to you at any age.
• Allow your children to choose books they like to read, even if they are not your choice.
• Help children find books about their interests, for example, if they love dogs, cars or dinosaurs, look for books on these topics.
• Beginners need books with simple words for success and enjoyment. Books that are too hard can put them off.
• All children are different. One child might not enjoy the same books or be at the same reading level as another child, or as an older brother or sister did at the same age.
• Don’t worry if your children like comics as they get older—it is all part of reading. Once they are confident readers they are likely to want to move on to reading different things.
• Many children (and adults) like to return to old favourites from time to time, even when they can read much more difficult stories. This can also happen if children are unwell or unhappy because familiar loved stories can help them to regain a sense of security and well being.

What should you look for?

The following suggestions can help when choosing books for your child.

Look for:

• books which vary the important roles—some where the prince saves the princess and some where the princess saves the prince
• books which don’t assume that people will act in a certain way, for example, the man does not always have to be washing the car, the woman does not have to be in the kitchen. People in authority do not have to be the ‘bad guys’
• books where what happens in the story fits with the ending. Children often enjoy the ending they have been looking forward to more than surprise endings
• a bit of trickery, humour, jumbled words, people getting into trouble—children enjoy a sense of fear and mischief
• interesting words and rhymes—as they get to preschool age children enjoy words and will like stories with some interesting or ‘big’ words to have fun
• attention to detail, for example the time on the clock, toothpaste on the toothbrush
• stories about their own hopes and wishes, for example, a book about a child starting school or having a birthday
• stories about things children know about, for example, stories about children of their own age
• books that explore the unhappy and angry feelings as well as good feelings, for example, books about moving house should talk about the child being a bit unsure and worried as well as being excited about the new adventure
• books for young children with happy endings
• fairy stories and folk tales—they have been around for so long because they are important for children. They are usually not too scary for children because they are about ‘long ago and far away’. They deal with some important life problems, for example, moving away from home and family, people dying, feeling unsure of yourself. After a scary bit in a story, stop and let your child talk about it. Don’t read stories that your child doesn’t like. Follow your child’s lead about the stories she wants.

Children who can read by themselves will want to read more if you let them choose what they enjoy reading, even if it is not ‘good literature’. They can always have some good literature through the stories that you read to them. Children who learn to love stories and reading usually want to read different kinds of books as they grow older.

What parents can do

• Try to make time to read to your baby and your child every day even for a few minutes.
• If you have more than one child you can also read or tell stories that they all like together, for example, family favourites or stories about your own childhood.
• Make a life story book for each of your children to show how where they have been, what they have achieved and important milestones. Have things like photographs of special events, a lock from the first haircut, the first word, the first day at school.
• Talk to your children about the things you read so they can see that reading is important for you.
• Visit the local library for story telling sessions. Ask the librarian about story times in other languages.
• Find toys or puppets that are like the people in your child’s favourite story to encourage her to remember and play out the story.
• When your child reads the words on a sign or food packet let her know that you are proud that she is reading.

Reminders

Contacts

• ACT Child and Family Centres (parenting information and support) 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday. Telephone: Gungahlin 6207 0120; Tuggeranong 6207 8228; West Belconnen 6205 2904
• healthdirect Australia (free health advice line, staffed by registered nurses) 24-hr 1800 022 222
• Maternal and Child Health 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday 6207 9977
• Parentline ACT 9am to 9pm Monday to Friday, except public holidays 6287 3833 

Websites

• Raising Children Network (the complete Australian resource for parenting newborns to teens, covering a broad range of up-to-date parenting topics) www.raising.children.net.au
• Child, Youth Health (parenting and child health information) www.cyh.com

ACT Govt Publication No 11/0808 July 2011