A preschool activity that will supercharge language

“Preschool” is a very telling name. From the moment a child enters their mini – school experience, we are trying to prepare them for kindergarten. We aren’t “playing.” We are setting the foundation for reading, writing, and more.

One activity in particular tends to “supercharge” a child’s language.

It makes utterances longer. It encourages combining utterances. It teaches sequencing. It teaches “wh” and other reading comprehension questions. And it teaches narrative structure, which helps with executive functioning and paragraph writing.

It’s an age-old activity : telling fairytales.

Of course, we can’t just play Tangled and expect a child’s language to blossom. We have to tell fairytales in a focused, and targeted way.

Fairytales are engaging without much effort. Almost every child stops at the mention princesses and dragons. So, how do we use this attention to our advantage?

1. Tell the story

Start by getting the child hooked on a fairy tale.“The Three Little Pigs” and “The Little Red Riding Hood” are good ones to start with. I’ll either find an engaging picture book, or I will find a video on Youtube that tells one of the stories. There’s nice 10 minute clips of traditional tales with engaging graphics and music.

2. Tell the story, but then use fill-in phrases

Most children will want to hear the story more than once. I take advantage of this, and tell the story again. But this time around, stop, and let the child fill in.

For example, “then the wolf huffed. Then he puffed Then he….”

It makes the story an interactive experience, increasing the child’s attention and two-way communication skills.

If the child does not fill in the phrase, model the answer for him. This may happen a few time. But with time, he will fill in.

3. Tell the story, but then use fill in sentences.

Start the story, but then pause at key events.

"What happens next?” is a great cue, that starts children responding to simple reading comprehension questions.

The child will then fill in sentences.

For example. “Little Red Riding Hood went into the forest. What happened next?”

Then wait for a sentence.

4. Gently correct sentences

If your preschool is like most of them, there are bound to be errors in the sentences. For example, “the wolf blowed the house down.”

This is a perfect opportunity to help along the morphemes / word parts they are mastering at this point.

“Oh you mean the wolf blew the house down? Good job. Can you say ‘the wolf blew the house down’?”

You can do this for past tense ed verbs like “walked”, irregular past verbs like “fell”, regular and irregular plurals (eg. - dogs and children), present tense verbs (eg. – the boy walks), and any other grammar forms the child should have mastering or should be mastering, according to a milestone chart.

5. Start asking wh-questions

Who, what, when, where, and why questions about fairytales can teach children how to pay attention to details in stories, and filter out important information. These are foundations for later reading comprehension.

You can ask the questions during, or after the story. For example, “who did Little Red Riding Hood meet?” or “when did she go back home?”

If a child cannot answer, you can give choices. “Did she go back at night or during the day?” I fade the choices in later run-throughs of the story.

6. Have the child tell the story back

After several iterations, children may start jumping in to tell the story. Let them! They are practicing how to say many sentences at once. And they are learning the story structure of some of the oldest narratives we still enjoy. They are learning transition / marker phrases like “once upon a time”, “first”, “then,” “last,”, “but,” and “happy ever after.” And they are learning that many things we say have a beginning, a middle, and an end – an important executive functioning foundation, as well as a foundation for writing.

7. Practice identifying narrative elements

Last but not least, fairy tales can help in learning the components of a story. This is another important precedent for reading and writing.

The elements of a narrative are the setting, the problem, the attempts to solve, the climax, the resolution, and the ending. You can teach these with wh questions, using child-friendly words.

For example, “what’s Little Red’s problem?” for problem, and “how can she make it better?” for “attempts to solve” should do the trick.

So there you have it! 7 easy ways to use an age-old, fun activity, to boost a child’s expressive language, and reading / writing foundations.

Happy storytelling!

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Disclaimer : Smarter Speech is a pediatric speech therapy / speech-language pathology practice for toddlers and children providing in-home and teletherapy services in and around Mountain View, CA and Los Gatos, CA. Smarter Speech Blog aims to provide free speech and language tips for parents educators and therapists. However, this post is not providing speech-language pathology services. This is general information, not speech -language pathology or speech therapy. This article does not assume or create a client – SLP relationship. The author is not liable for any losses or damages due to actions or failure to act based on the content in this article. If you need assistance with a child’s speech or language needs, please contact a speech-language pathologist in your area.