Schools, teachers, parents and community

Posted on 23^rd April, 2020, under News, Research

County childcare boards across Ireland work collaboratively with a variety of stakeholders in the early childcare community to promote and supply equality of access and participation to affordable programs that support the holistic development and well-being of all children. The county childcare boards promote family-friendly approaches to supporting parents and families to nurture learning and development with young children. This is a sector my website would envision collaborating with to support the holistic, relational and inclusive development of all children.

Teachers/Educators tell stories and listen to stories everyday in most preschool environments. However, how you tell the story, how the children engage with the story and the impact it will have on learning and development is dependent on many variables. For example, what is the best time to tell a story? Is there a quite space for the children to hear a story told? Is their space for the children to interact with the story and act out their own original stories? Are their enough educators to facilitate the storytelling activity? As you can guess, storytelling can become quite a challenge in the unpredictable preschool environment. Nevertheless, we also understand that engaging children’s imaginations are crucial to successful learning. This website offers support to educators who would like to engage the children using oral storytelling and the telling of stories using picturebook, props and children’s own original stories.

A child’s most important learning and development begin in the home. Parents, caregivers, siblings and family members influence how the child comes to understand the cultural norms of society in which he or she is growing up. Storytelling widely recognised as a universal language, children from all backgrounds around the world can enjoy stories. However, it is important to provide support and tips to families so we can enable others to have an enjoyable time telling, sharing and making up stories with their children. Our website, will provide information to support parents and families to explore new ways to engage children in storytelling which aim to foster social, emotional and intellectual well-being. Story-based approaches to interacting with young children strengthen relationships between parents/caregivers and children because the focus is on the child, having fun and interacting with the storyteller.

The Department of Education and Skills (2011), emphasise the importance of fostering a love for reading and books with children and young people. The National Strategy to Improve Literacy and Numeracy among young children and young people (2011-2020), one of the targets for children in early childhood settings was to promote oral-language competency. Indeed, it is during early childhood when children are introduced to stories and picturebooks that their interest in books develop. When children are exposed to language-rich classrooms in fun and exciting ways, they develop their oral-language competency and hold on to the joy of storytelling and story reading throughout life.

Catherine (Kitty) O'Reilly