Storytelling in Early Childhood Education: The importance of Embracing the Digital and Analog, in Order to Support Different Learning Styles.

From as early as the newborn stage of life, families have been sharing stories with their children because they know how important the skill of reading and listening are for young minds that are ripe with possibilities. 

Young children enjoy reading, writing and listening to stories and from those stories, they are able to understand more about society, their place in the world as well as how life “works” in general. 

Telling and dramatizing stories is a fairly widespread addition to the preschool curriculum, primarily because of the exposure this practice has gained through the multitude of writing that addresses the effects of storytelling on social-emotional and cognitive development of children. 

Studies show us that storytelling is an important teaching resource with a strong presence in all societies since the evolution of human language and has a highly effective role in the education of young children.

Storytelling and story reading have both been found to be successful when developing educational curriculum and strategies that create significant improvements in these areas: 

1. Develop and strengthen their reading comprehension 

2. Make sense of basic mathematics 

3. Begin and improve language acquisition in young children 

4. Improve their oral and spoken language 

5. Help children to learn and appreciate their world 

6. Improve cross-cultural communication and promote moral and social development. 

Throughout our history of time, storytelling has grown and developed while adopting a new dynamic of contemporary presence through setting (i.e. environment), places and the creative medium of choice. 

A major plus from the effects of emergent digital technologies has been the ability to transform the complexity of storytelling and open up new avenues for collaborative approaches - which is amazing for building community amongst children. 

Can you imagine living in Orange County, CA while cross-collaborating on a creative project with a fully remote team, with each member in places like Dallas, TX, Tampa, FL or even overseas?

This is all made possible with our advancements in technology and digital storytelling. 

What is Digital Storytelling? And how and why is it important for children’s education and development? 

Digital storytelling is a creative process that mixes conventional storytelling with digital technology, including things like a video camera, a computer, editing software, sound recorder and graphic design. Digital storytelling is a way for children to create and share their stories online using digital media.Which is great when it comes to not only learning about new subjects, yet also to support different learning styles for every child. 

We’ve all seen this image circulating online on social media, right?

The quotation-based memes often touch on education and intelligence, and among the most ubiquitous is the following remark attributed to Albert Einstein:

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

And because every child has a specific learning style that works best for them, it is imperative as parents and educators to embrace them while working diligently on resources and curriculum that supports them to be lifelong learners. 

Another benefit is the affordability of technology in our day and age that has caused digital storytelling methods to be quickly and widely spread. Thus, unlocking traditional doors that were once locked. 

This is especially important for children being able to bridge the gap between cultures and other societies around the world. 

As new technologies have become more affordable and commonly accessible to more children, digital storytelling has become a reliable learning platform that can be used at all levels of education from early childhood to higher education. 

Gamification is also an innovative resource that is supportive of different learning styles with children – more on that in a future blog post.

Several studies have also generated qualitative evidence that technology has beneficial effects on encoding, visual perception, fine motor skills and creative thinking and creative problem-solving 

(which are growing and high-demand skills to have, as your children pursue more lucrative career opportunities). 

While more and more schools are now using digital storytelling, many teachers have also begun to develop storytelling practices using digital technology that combines the tried and true method of storytelling with a variety of digital multimedia, such as images, audio, and video – and gaming (wink wink 😉)

While it's no secret that technology has opened up greater opportunities for children to learn within various mediums that can meet children’s unique and individual needs. As education practitioners increasingly incorporate technology and digital media into their classrooms so that children have the same access and can experience more ways  to participate and learn.

This, as byproduct, also unlocks their minds to explore new ways that inspire them to achieve great new heights.

If you’ve been looking for something new to cultivate lifelong skills that encourage #empathy, #compassion, conflict resolution, emotional intelligence and psychological self-esteem™.

Check out our website: storytellingwithstopmotion.com to learn more about our curriculums, courses and educational events. 

What is Storytelling With Stop Motion?

It's unique“Edu-Tainment” that studies have shown to hold children’s attention spans while also adding value to their education. 

This is the perfect curriculum addition to your child(ren's) homeschool or traditional school curriculum. 

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