How stories help children

Families Education How Stories Help Children Understand Others

by Mimi Nicklin

The world we live in is full of complexities, tumultuous relationships and gaps between

us and other people. How do we ensure our children connect with others and fully understand those around them without automatically struggling with the same issues that we are?

Studies have shown that from the age of 2 years, children start to show genuine empathy - understanding how other people feel even when they don't feel the same way that they do. So how do we as parents nurture this?

The role-modelling that we apply at home is probably the most key way in which we can empower our children to develop the emotional intelligence our world needs. This means showing our children how empathy looks and how we put the feelings and reality of others at the forefront of our actions. Our children will follow our lead.

Beyond this, the secret to creating empathy may lie in the books and stories we give our children access to. Bedtime stories. Day-time stories. Life-time stories. However you tell them, storytelling with your children can be an incredibly powerful tool to helping them gain new perspectives and create shared understanding with those around them. Emotional simulation and imagination through storytelling is the foundation of our children's ability to evolve their capacity to empathise and truly understand others. It allows them to make the leap from their own beautifully self-centred world to recognising that others may feel distinctly different to them - and that recognising this is well within their reach and role.

Academic research now shows that reading, or being read to, actually changes the neuro pathways in our brain – it quite literally alters the way we process and think. Creating empathy is, of course, not limited to storytelling alone but it’s a proven way to support our children as they grow in a world that has increasingly low empathy.

How do Stories Help?

Storytelling has been powerful throughout modern civilisation - we have been sharing and learning through this medium for as long as we can record. From drawings on cave walls to the first children’s tales published in books for children in the 1740’s, we have always instinctively known that stories positively impact society. Telling our children stories allows them to rapidly understand people’s emotions and realities, bringing the brains of a generation of our children together. The power of storytelling in building our humanity and society shouldn’t ever be left to a pre-bedtime routine alone. Throughout our children’s lives and education, stories have the power to create deep childhood empathy by:

• Allowing children to imagine how another sees the world by feeling as the character does; • Fostering children's understanding of social behaviours and our ability as humans to work together as part of a group; • Breaking down bias and fostering inclusively. Mimi Nicklin is a globally recognised millennial thought-leader. She is host of the Empathy for Breakfast show, Secrets of The Gap podcast and author of new book Softening the Edge. For more information go to www.miminicklin.com

Empathy in Action

In April 2020, mid the world’s worst global pandemic in recent history, Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, announced that the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy qualified as ‘Essential Workers’ who were allowed to travel freely during the lockdown. As this news story unfolded across the planet, we saw the belief in the power of storytelling for our children at an unprecedented level. When the leaders of entire countries are impacting policy in an effort to ensure that storytelling and imagination remain at the top of the national agenda and that our children remain connected to the power of empathising with others (fictional or otherwise), we know that we are encountering a human capability that can truly change the face of our own, and our children’s, futures.