What does understanding and telling stories contribute to in a child?

Understanding and telling stories significantly contributes to literacy development in a child. Engaging with stories enhances a child’s vocabulary and comprehension skills, as they learn new words and sentence structures in context. It also fosters the ability to recognize narrative structures, such as beginnings, middles, and endings, which are critical for reading comprehension. Furthermore, storytelling encourages children to express their thoughts coherently and can improve their writing skills. The practice of both listening to stories and narrating them oneself lays a strong foundation for future reading and writing proficiency, which is essential for literacy development overall.

While listening skills, mathematical reasoning, and social skills are also important areas of development for children, they are not the primary focus of storytelling in relation to literacy. Listening skills can certainly improve when children absorb stories, but the deeper connection lies in how stories promote reading and writing abilities. Similarly, while storytelling can support social skills by fostering interactions and understanding of perspectives, its most direct and significant impact is on literacy.