Share stories with children

People have told stories for centuries to explore ideas and make sense of their experiences.

Did you know that when children read stories it helps them develop ways of thinking that are important for success in science? To be a scientist, you need to be able to ask “what if” questions, make informed guesses and then test these guesses. Children need lots of opportunities to develop this kind of thinking – and stories provide these opportunities.

When you hear the word “fairy tale”, what stories do you think of? We all know some fairytales, folktales, or intsomi. Whether they were home-grown here in Africa or come originally from Europe, these are the magical stories with strange, out-of-this-world characters like fairies, tokoloshes, giants, monsters, elves and witches that we love to hear and read.

We all have at least one language that we understand and communicate best in, although some of us may have more! People use different labels for this language − like “mother tongue” or “home language” − but it is the language we learnt first. It’s the language we think and feel in, the one in which it is easiest for us to express ourselves and communicate with others.

What do you use reading and writing for?

With babies, young children, and even older children who have to learn through an additional language like English at school, it’s best to share books in the language or languages you speak at home with them. It takes many years to learn your mother tongue well, and reading and talking about books in your mother tongue enriches your children’s language – and it gives your children the head start they need for successful learning at school.

People have told stories for centuries to explore ideas and make sense of their experiences. In fact, sharing stories is as natural to human beings as eating and sleeping!

More and more adults are beginning to wake up to what a difference they can make in children’s lives when they read stories to them. They are offering them brain food!

Great stories weave magic. When we read a story in which the character suffers pain or hardship, our hearts beat as fast as when we listen to our real friends and family talking about something that is painful for them. We feel the story characters’ pain and their glory. And we now know from research why this is.