Since the first tingling of the roots of humanity, story and song have been central tools in the meta-scape for building, changing, preserving and expressing culture. Narrative is an intrinsic pathway that our brains use to acquire and attach meaning to new information and move relevant learning into deep memory. Live and dynamic storytelling and song, particularly in early childhood, aid in the development of strong literacy foundations, fostering crucial skills in narrative structure, cultural allusions, rich vocabulary and grammatical variations. Any story? Any song? Yes, but we find that in older (more than 50-100 years) fairytales, myth and folk literature and songs, that often the language is layered with vocabulary and structure that exceeds our current vernacular and contributes to building academic language essential for school readiness. Additionally, this material fosters creativity, critical thinking and emotional intelligence.
Narrative structure is how humans learn and retain valuable information. Stories act as a virtual realm where situations might play out allowing critical thinking and empathy to develop. Lisa Cron, author of “Wired for Story”, sites that a provocative tale can cause dopamine to be released and heat rate and blood pressure to increase mimicking the neuro-sensory reaction to an actual event. Chemically, the brain goes through the experience and memory writes it down. Cron says that narratives package abstract concepts into a form that is meaningful to the person, and thus more likely to be retained unlike rote memorization of disaggregated information.
Fairy tales, folk stories and myths provide a diverse cultural backdrop of language, problems solving themes, and patterns of human nature while stimulating the imagination. They create virtual studios for “What If?” a crucial question in divergent thinking and the creative process. Storytellers can tempt an audience to consider challenging angles and relevant themes to these timeless artifacts triggering long-term contemplation of complex events. Often these stories will have mnemonic patterns that allow for a complete recollection of the narrative after only one telling. That is efficient content delivery! Phychologist and folk literature scholar Bruno Bettlhem says, “[Fairy tales] help us because we connect to our own lives, dreams, anxieties, and consider what we would do in their shoes. Fairy tales help children learn how to navigate life.”
But many of those old stories have strange doses of the macabre. Witches, ghosts, and ogres; should darker themes be avoided? Every culture is written by the answers to child rearing questions. Margee Kerr Ph.D says that for many children, “being scared in a safe place is a source of enjoyment and can even serve as a confidence boost, reminding us that we can make it through a scary situation, we are strong.” The part of the brain stimulated in circumstances of fear is the amygdala, responsible for our flight or fight instinct. Adrenaline is also released at these times which signals to the brain to be very aware of what is happening. This heightened awareness is magical for deep memory as it is a survival instinct to remember those situations that may be potentially dangerous. While there are certainly very real instances where fear is appropriate, when the audience is aware that there is no real danger, the listener is able to process a different reaction than trauma, or anxiety. In fact, intentionally scary indulgence is being used as therapy for phobias and PTSD. “If exposed repeatedly to a fearsome stimulus, the brain will get used to it and no longer experience it as frightening, writes Charles Q. Choi. It is like gaining additional exits to a labyrinth.
Fairy tales and myth follow the spontaneous, multidirectional logic of a child instead of a linear concrete logic of an adult. They nurture imagination with the fantastic and reinforce locality with cultural and ecological artifacts. Fairy tales instruct by inference instead of mandate. They suggest that it is best to choose a path that is good without directly telling a listener what the correct way is. Olga Sidlovskaya of Karelia State Pedagogical University in Russia stresses that Fairy Tales “introduce [children] to the world of coded situations and problems, to the world of experience, enigmas, and mystery.” Sidlovskaya adds that it can be beneficial to augment the recitation of a story with sensory components like touch (fabric) and smells. The additional senses help to aid retention of the story details while providing concrete imagery on which imagination can grow.
Songs work particularly well to pair with narrative as happens in many old folk tunes along with both tonal and lyrical repetition. As children are beginning to acquire language and build meaningful sentence strings, narrative structure and repetition are essential aids in identifying importance. Repetition can be unfolded into multiple sensory inputs. For instance, when a song has word repetition paired with action, or instrument or singing along, the simultaneous sensory input indicates that the information is more important and thus retained at greater ease. Additionally, narrative structure and tonal repetition allow for students to repeat content without the need for a direct instructor. It is common for children to repeat nearly verbatim a story or song they have heard only one time. When a child is autonomously repeating this information in their car seat, eating dinner, laying down for sleep, or creating an interactive play of the scenarios on the playground with peers, adult direction is not necessary; learning becomes perpetual.
Older folk songs often contain advanced language vocabulary and grammatical structure. Puff, the Magic Dragon, for instance, “frolics in the autumn mist,” Molly Malone “wheels her wheelbarrow, through streets broad and narrow,” and My Grandfather’s Clock is said to be “taller by half than the old man himself though it weighed not a pennyweight more,” combining complex vocabulary and structure with sustained consecutive thought while adding in an algebraic comparison and arithmetic problem all at the same time. A favorite song of children, The Mermaid, demonstrates advanced subject/ object order, “Up spoke the captain of our gallant ship, and a wise old man was he.” Additionally, the narrative structure of ballads and much cumulative/reductive verse foster critical thinking by providing beginning-middle-end frameworks to harness memory. The story-structure delivers rich imagery and complex language while creating a space for it to live.
Rhymes, rhythm, repetition, voice, are all tools of the story, be it written or performed live. A live telling, though, provides a fluidity and paralinguistic (body language) dynamic which aids in comprehension. Expression, intonation, voice and volume, visual aids such as gestures and props work together to sustain focus, convey action and emotion, and nurture a tolerance for ambiguity while learners allow concepts to unfold or emerge like stars in a darkening sky, like figures approaching in fog. To tolerate, and eventually desire, states of mystery is a crucial skill for the act of higher order problem solving. This skill in early childhood is witnessed by the child’s ability to participate as an audience member by absorbing the story, singing along with the songs, and responding to open-ended inquiries. When a learner has the fortune of developing a relationship with the storyteller much of the practice becomes much more lucid due to the trust and expectations established between mentor and learner.
The craft of storytelling and discipline of story reading are not the same. Teacher lead story reading is quite common in early childhood classrooms, whereas storytelling is often a purchases program that occurs irregularly. Each are necessary experiences for strong early literacy development and can nurture different capacities, particularly with an intentional teacher as guide.
References
Bettelheim, B. Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. 1976.
Baycrest Center for Geriatric Care (2017, June 20). Long Term Memories Made With Meaningful Information. NeuroscienceNew. Retrieved June 20, 2017 from: http://neurosciencenews.com/memory-meaningful-information-6944/
Choi, Charles Q. “Why We Love To Be Scared,” Live Science. 2006. Retrieved from:
https://www.livescience.com/4273-love-scared.html
Cron, Lisa. Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers From the Very First Sentence. Ten Speed Press. 2012.
Docherty Saoirse. “5 Reasons Why Fairy Tales Are Good For Children,” Scottish Book Trust, 2014. Retrieved from:
Kerr, Margee, “Why We Loved to Be Scared,” Psychology Today, Oct 07, 2015 retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/why-we-scream/201510/why-we-love-be-scared
Sidlovskaya, Olga “Fairy Tales Enhance Imagination and Creative Thinking,” Child Care Exchange 2000, retrieved from:
Wolf, Joan M. The Beanstalk And Beyond: Developing Critical Thinking Through Fairy Tales, Libraries Unlimited. 1997.
