storytelling for children
Story therapy
An increasing number of psychotherapists are using storytelling to help solve people’s problems. Carl Jung writes in The Man and His Symbols that although we may have different cultural and religious backgrounds, we all share a common consciousness. He believed that humans use the same or similar symbols that represent both the higher and lower aspects of mental life.
Bruno Bettelheim is the most famous psychologist in this field who used storytelling as a method of treating children. He was a teacher and therapist for children with psychosis. According to Bettelheim, the most difficult task in educating children is to help them understand the meaning of life to reach mental maturity. “Apart from the vital and important role of guardians, the cultural heritage in the form of myths gives meaning to their lives,” he writes in his book Highlights the Applications of Enchantment. He believes that when we put children in front of literature, stories have the greatest attraction for them.
He explains: The point is not that virtue is promoted in the end by victory and morality, but that the protagonist is the most attractive thing for the child, and he sees his hero in the role of the protagonist in all struggles. Because of this identification, the child imagines that the protagonist will struggle with trials and disasters and achieve victory with him.
Because virtue is victorious. The child also does the identification on his own, and the inner and outer challenges of the hero engrave morality on his conscience. The red cape is an example of symbolic stories. A small red cape goes across the forest to see Grandma. He has a kind heart, but soon forgets his mother’s advice, trusts the wolf, and reveals all the details of his grandmother’s house to her. The wolf eats his grandmother first and then the red cape, and if his friends had arrived a little later, we might have had a sad ending to the story. Red Riding Hood learns that friendship is a great thing, but misplaced trust in anyone is a misplaced thing.
The story of the red cape may seem very trivial at first glance, but it is a great allegory to teach that not everyone deserves friendship should never trust strangers. Stories and myths have important psychological messages. They help children overcome psychological developmental problems by familiarizing them with what is going on in their subconscious. Stories teach children that the struggle against severe problems in life is inevitable and a natural part of human life, and that if a person retreats and faces steadfastly unexpected and often oppressive hardships, he will overcome all obstacles and ultimately win. Becomes.
2-year-olds soon become interested in hearing children’s stories or poems. Toddler stories should not be long or complicated. The story may be just a reflection of the daily grind, such as preparing food or cooking it. As children get older, you can tell them stories with more events and characters.
3-year-olds, for example, often enjoy hearing true stories about their childhood or the rest of their family. By the age of seven, you can tell children melodic and rhythmic stories in which keywords are repeated. For this age group, it is very appropriate to exaggerate in telling and showing the story with gestures, because it gives wings to their imagination and creates a good relationship between the storyteller and the listener.
According to Rudolf Steiner, founder of Waldorf Schools, preschoolers love hand gestures, mood swings, and facial expressions and sounds and sound effects. You can use these elements to bring characters and events to life for children. Remember to always use these elements in a story in the same way so that children learn and remember them. Matching is an important element in storytelling that influences and influences stories. Adaptation is an unconscious mental process. When children listen to the story, they constantly connect what they hear with their memories.
They search in their minds to relate their present experiences of the story to events from the past. If a child hears a “big, angry dog,” he or she will begin to adapt to past experiences to give meaning to the three words. Therefore, the phrase “angry big dog” evokes a different image in each listening child. Because children are unique, their experiences are also unique. They interpret them through their senses and according to their past experiences.
To do this, each child learns to make a string of patterns. When children hear a story, they constantly relate the events and characters of the story to their experiences of the events. The matching process takes place on an unconscious level. For example, have you ever noticed that if something normal happens to one of the heroes in the course of your story, one of the children may remember a similar event that happened to him or her or witnessed it and wants to? To retell it.
This process takes place quickly in the story room, and almost everyone remembers the same thing. In fact, you have activated a matching process throughout your storytelling.
See Also The story of a lion and a man
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