Telling stories together is a great way to support your child’s early speech, language and communication skills.
There are many different ways you can tell stories, you can do it anywhere, and they can be about anything!
Getting started
To help get you started, sit together and watch author Simon Mole and his musician partner Gecko's Rhythm and wriggles singalong, about earthworms. Have a go at joining in with the song and clapping rhythm as you watch!
Now watch Simon and Gecko Create a bug story about a worm! Pause and chat about their ideas as you watch, and then …
Make your own bug story
Don’t worry, you don’t have to sing your story, talking together has just as much of an impact. To get your imaginations flowing you could:
- Invite your child to draw their own bug character, or maybe make their own sock puppet bug!
- Go on a bug hunt together, and prompt them to imagine what the bugs you find get up to all day, or all night!
- Choose a bug to research together online, or borrow a book from the library.
More storytelling at home ideas:
Children are natural storytellers. When they play with dinosaurs, dolls, or cars they use their imaginations to tell stories. If you join in with them and tell stories together, you’ll be introducing new words, and ideas, supporting their imaginations and vocabularies.
Try to find little moments throughout the day to share and tell stories together. Remember, there’s lots of different ways to do it:
- Choose books to look at together.
- Re-tell a favourite story together.
- Tell a story while you’re out and about.
