Tip 118: Early exposure to story telling

The baby first gathers interest in familiar and friendly characters as his/her ears listens attentively and eyes and head move around to satisfy the craving to understand and interact with the environment. In the process, the baby interprets meaning and develops a sense of satisfaction, of humour, of learning, of loneliness, of pain and of fear. This happens as early as 3 months, or possibly earlier in a baby’s growth and development of his/her mental and emotional faculty. The baby remembers and begins to try to articulate his/her learning, his/her sense of humour to others who are there to listen. When Haruka was 3 months old, she was spending 2 weeks in her grandmother’s home in Okinawa where they had a pet cat. I would go to the beach every day, yet during the evening, I would be a little bored and find amusement in chasing the cat around for being naughty to wreck the furniture in the home. I was roaring like a lion loudly and interestingly Haruka either saw me doing that or heard me. One day, when she was maybe 5-6 months old, she started to make roaring noises for no particular reason when I was talking to her. We later showed her a lion’s photo, documentaries of lions roaring on the TV and took her to the zoo and she finally had her full understanding of a lion’s roar. After 1 year old, whenever we took her anyway, she would point at a lion on a poster, billboard or on top of a statue and roar. Deep inside, Haruka feels happy that we know she is trying to communicate with us that she knows what a lion is. She begins to observe the different features of lions in different drawings, cartoons and photos and her learning of a lion gives her fulfilment. This develops further into how a lion chases a deer, how humans (or even monkeys) dance to music and the understanding of different story lines. When that happens, I take the opportunity to introduce new vocabularies to Haruka and act out the same actions myself to demonstrate how a particular action is performed with different facial expressions to accompany it. At this time, regular story telling either by me or by teachers has exponential benefits to Haruka’s learning. Story telling is a foundation to getting interested in learning and the sooner we understand our baby’s readiness and expose them to it, the sooner they would engage the world intensively with enthusiasm.












I think through articulation where in my solitude, I like to be singing a song, hum a tune or vocalize my thoughts. I spend a lot of time talking to Haruka especially during our walks. The key difference when you do not own a car, is that you spend more time carrying your baby. It can be a little strain on the backs, but it’s a much better option than leaving your child on a stroller or be absorbed with the radio channels and keeping silent or agitated by traffic while spending time with family. As Haruka’s walking speed is slow now and as we tend to be walking quite long distances during the weekends, carrying is a more feasible option, plus it allows me to be at the same level as Haruka where her head is just beneath mine. This allows for a lot of communication where I can point to her the different animals in our walking path and even tell short stories about them. It need not be a long story with a good plot, but just a simple one that contains motive and at least 1 character. For instance, I could say, “Oh look at the squirrel. (points to the squirrel). It is looking for oishi (delicious) food.” Sometimes, I will add, “today the squirrel is happy playing. Are you also happy today?” We may underestimate these simple conversations, but they actually act as a mini story and exposure to them gets the children ready for more elaborate stories. In fact, these real stories happen to be more interesting than reading a book to your child especially when your child does not read yet. Also, Tomomi takes Haruka to a weekly free playgroup in Canary Wharf library where they have story telling in the morning. Some shopping complexes also organize story telling sessions with professionally drawn large storyboards and cartoons that are presented with lots of enthusiasm and charisma. We may think that a baby under 1 or 2 years old does not have a long attention span or even the ability to understand the stories, but early exposure can do wonders we do not know. Like a farmer who never knows if the seed sowed would reap a bountiful harvest, such that I never knew Haruka would mimic my roar after more than 1 month hearing it and remembering it. As daddies, we just faithfully do our best and give our children the exposure and as many opportunities available at an early stage, and let our children grow and develop at their own pace.












Do you do story telling with your children? Do share.

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(Photos show Leadenhall market during Christmas and buildings along Fleet Street, London).