Listening to Children
Storytelling plays a key role in the development of the personal voice which aids children in communicating their own unique experiences and understanding the world around them. The narrative elements of telling stories allows children to reconstruct events that they perceive to be overwhelming such as the birth of a new sibling, going to a new school, and making new friends. When children enter the social world, they listen to stories surrounding them to get clues about appropriate actions within their culture. Research has revealed that children who tell stories to each other and to their parents receive what is called "shared experience" and "shared knowledge" that help children reach a degree of conversational ability surpassing those children whose story-sharing is uncultivated or inhibited.

Learning through Storytelling
Storytelling builds listening and concentration skills; encourages creativity; motivates reading and writing; and instills excitement and interest in learning. Because storytelling exposes children to spoken language, it increases their success as readers and writers.

Empowering Children
Empowering children as storytellers really means listening to them and validating their story. Showing a genuine interest in a child's story whether imagined or based on experiences will encourage further story-sharing and instill all the benefits of storytelling.

Facing Fears
When children listen to stories, they often associate themselves with a story's characters' feelings and perspectives. This helps them understand their own fears, emotions, and feelings. Children feel very small and often misunderstood by adults. Stories help them feel like others have had similar experiences to the ones they are experiencing, and helps them develop language skills that will enable them to explain their own unique feelings and situations.

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