Literature is a means of communication that allows us to deal with multiple themes. It could be expressed as a universe of countless events, emotions and reflections for those who wish to appreciate them. Its nature has a variety of extensions, among them, the short story.
Tales are short stories, fantasy stories, which describe a specific event, leaving a moral or allowing the reader to feel the emotions of the characters and imagine numerous scenarios. For this reason, stories represent a valuable tool for the emotional education of children.
It is said that a story is able to promote imagination, improve the lexicon and develop strategies for dealing with emotions such as anger, joy, fear and disgust.
Stories allow children to experience emotions from a safe space, give them knowledge to act on real emotions, and sow in their hearts the hope and longing for a new story.
How do stories contribute to emotional education in children?
There is a characteristic that can be alluded to in stories, and that is that they promote all areas of emotions. What does this mean? That the stories told in a fairy tale offer emotional training from a distance. In this way, the person can experience and train their own emotions derived from the story that is being read.
The right story will allow the emotions to be identified, accepted and a resolution to problems to be proposed, creating future social skills to cope with real emotions and problems.
All this thanks to emotional awareness, which is awakened through reading. Emotional autonomy, which is governed by the character of the characters and the decisions they make. Social skills, to resolve conflicts; and finally, learning from the story, whether values, moral or final reflection.
How to choose the right story?
In order to carry out an educational and emotional purpose through reading, the stories that the child will listen to or read must be chosen carefully. The first step to consider in order to promote emotional education is that the story must have a playful function, that it awakens the child’s interest, that reading is a decision of the child’s own, not a forced one.
Secondly, reading should provide, directly or indirectly, a basic education, providing linguistic, cultural or moral knowledge.
In addition, there are guidelines that can help you choose the right story:
- The story should arouse the child’s interest.
- It should have a background or moral.
- The child should identify with the characters.
Based on these points, choosing the right reading will contribute positively to the child, because a good story helps the little ones to visualize a problem, as they can experience it through their own emotions, come to understand what they feel and accept it, thus, it is easier for children to manage solutions to have an emotionally balanced life.
