Tricks to tell stories to children

The best of the stories, if you do not count it correctly, will hardly reach the hearts of children. The voice and the gestures are like the exclamation or question marks, as important or more than the content of the story we have. They give us the emotion of the story. They give credibility to bring the story closer to the emotional reality we live.

Reading in a flat and linear way, without cadences or intonation, or without gesticulation of the lips, eyes or face in general, provides rational information, but deprives us of access to the child's emotional channel, which is fundamental.

Narrators of emotions

The child's imagination is descriptive, emotionally facilitative. It does not prosecute. It is eminently emotional. He lets himself be carried away by projecting images of what he feels in his mind thanks to the ease of imagining.
Stories serve children to project their emotions. The fantasy of the story will suggest how to redirect, how to put aside their discomfort, their inability to move forward. And, for this, it is basic that our way of transmitting emotions, when we read the story, is consistent with the emotions of the protagonists of that story.


To tell stories you learn

It is not complicated to tell stories ... if we believe them, if we let ourselves be trapped by history, if we let our ears hear the characters and if their emotions become ours. Therefore, telling stories is learned. If we believe the emotions of history, it will be easier to put ourselves on paper and interpret gestures, intonation and in the cadence of our voice flow alone.
Telling stories is neither good nor bad ... it is simply done, believing in what is being done, situating ourselves in the place of our children. It is essential to believe the story that is being told.

Tricks to be the best storyteller

Simple guidelines to become magical parent-storytellers:
1. Rate how you are. If we are angry, or too sad, we probably will not transmit calm to the child. In this case, if we have the facility to reorganize quickly, go ahead! But otherwise, it would be more appropriate to leave the story for another time, limited to kissing goodnight, or many kisses and hugs ... and tomorrow will be another day.


2. Try to avoid interruptions. It is important to spend time telling the story, without being aware of whether we have left something half done, unless it is essential. Otherwise, the magic will disappear and it will probably be expensive to retake the level of attention and emotional tension that we had achieved.

3. Capture attention while you narrate it is easier if we maintain eye contact and gesticulate with our mouths.

4. The dynamics the narrative is more active with short and simple sentences, in which we express clearly and concretely what we want to convey. As a consequence, it is essential to select the events that we are going to narrate, distinguishing those that are fundamental from those that are not.

5. The tone of our voice It is as important as the rhythm of it. According to the story advance and according to the emotion that the character expresses so our rhythm will be transformed and the force will change. In this sense, if we have been able to approach the emotions of the protagonists and we have learned the story, our emotional system will advance what comes next and facilitate the flow of emotions adapting our tone, strength and rhythm.


6. Assess the child's maturing moment. This is basic, but we often forget that there are certain facts, actions and behaviors that are not going to be understood by all ages. And there are also certain examples, characters or magical recreations that with certain years are no longer credible.

7. Specify the emotion of your child: the fear that we want to dilute, undo, eliminate. They say that the one that covers a lot of little squeezes ... and in this case it is true. It is important to determine the emotion that will be projected in the story. In this line, when dealing with fears, we try to induce a small state of relaxation before the story. Initially we will adapt our respiratory rhythm, causing it to be calmer and slower, to induce that of our children. Later ours will adapt to yours, when it is calmer.

8. The concrete place where we are going to tell the stories is not important, but it is important to keep in mind the physical space in which we find ourselves. It is important to include some characteristics of the environment of our children in the story that we are going to tell you. In this way it becomes much more present, credible and facilitator for the "tele-transportation" inside the story. In addition, it fulfills a second function, that of focusing on certain physical aspects of "our here and now known" the tranquilized emotions that the story can evoke.Therefore, keeping in mind the season of the year or the weather and including it as part of the "prop" of our brief stories makes them even more credible.

Following these simple instructions and, once our "special story for our special children" is drawn up, they will feel trapped by the story and by the narrator. And in this way, the story will fulfill its therapeutic function perfectly.

Relax and help children overcome their fears

Before starting with our story try to relax. To do this, accompany the physical breathing with the emotional, while saying the "magic words":
  Remember that we are going to teach our brain,
How slowly can you breathe
So that our body,
Little by little you can relax.

Children are very suggestible; and if they are afraid, even more so. For this reason, it is worth taking advantage of their capacity of suggestion to convey to them that they can overcome their fears. If we impress them, they will activate the conviction and, later, the auto-suggestion. In short, to succeed and catch the attention of the child who listens to us impatiently, it is necessary to abandon yourself to the story and live with it the whole story that will help you to be cured of your fear.


Ana Gutiérrez Y Pedro Moreno. Clinical psychologists. Book authors Children, fear and stories. How to tell stories that heal. Published by Desclée de Brouwer.

Video: Public Speaking Tips - the biggest trick to telling stories that captivate


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