Fairy Tales and Fables for Language Development

One really easy way to incorporate a lot of receptive and expressive language into a child's daily routine is to introduce reading fairy tales and fables. Traditional Grimms' fairy tales (the PG versions), as well as Aesop's Fables, are good places to start.

However, just reading the stories is not enough. It's important to focus on certain concepts while reading, including -

1. Story grammar elements - identifying characters, settings, problems, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution is great practice, especially for students in 3rd - 5th grade. This is important because it builds the foundation for organizing ideas to retell stories orally, as well as in a written format. It's also an important foundation for structuring ideas for essays as well

2. Social language/problem solving - in most fairy tales and fables, characters have problems, which they try to solve. Identifying these problems, and the different ways to solve them, is great for indirectly developing the foundations for problem solving

3. Perspective taking /social language - identifying characters' thoughts and feelings throughout the story is a great way to build emotional intelligence, and form foundations for strong friendships and interaction in the classroom

4. Vocabulary development -reading fairy tales and fables is a great time to identify words that your child may not know. Instead of teaching vocabulary, though, teach your child to guess what the word means based on context. This is a great skill, which helps with vocabulary acquisition later on as well. For example - "the creature was gigantic. What do you think that means? Big? Or small?"

5. Wh questions - pausing every page or two to ask and answer wh questions, such as "WHO is he talking to?" or "WHAT is she doing?" or "WHEN does she go to the forest?" or "WHERE did the wolf go?" This is especially good for 1st and 2nd grade students.

6. Higher level language questions - WHY and HOW questions are great for develop higher level language, and skills like inference. Questions like "why do you think he's going there?" or "How do you think she is going to solve this?" are great for kids from 2nd - 5th grade, to develop thinking out of the box

So there you have it! A reason to visit your local bookstore, and be extra productive while doing so!

Meanwhile, check on Smarter Speech SLP's Story Detective Bundle on TPT (just $20.99). This bundle features 10 fairy tales / fables. And each page of each fairy tale/ fable packet has questions targeting all 6 of the questions above. There are stories for all grades - especially 2-5 - and you can adapt each worksheet based on your child's language level and skill.

The Bundle features the following stories, which you can purchase individually for just $3 each.

1. Hansel and Gretel - FREE!

2. The Little Mermaid - with a bonus element of compare and contrast, and great for older elementary

3. The Princess and the Pea - with specific emphasis on social language concepts

4. The Ugly Duckling - with specific emphasis on social language concepts

5. The Fox and the Grapes - especially for higher elementary, with specific emphasis on inferences and vocab in context

6. The Little Red Riding Hood - especially useful for lower elementary school (Grades 1-3)

7. Goldilocks - especially useful for lower elementary school (Grades 1-3)

8. The Little Red Hen - good for easy social language concepts

9. The Three Little Pigs - great for introducing early inferencing concepts

10. The Legend of St Jordi - with vocab in context, inferencing, cross-cultural literacy, Grades 3-5

11. The Nutcracker -fun for the holiday season, includes symbolism and cross-cultural literacy!

And bonus - check out this "make your own book" activity, where you can print, and practice all the elements above in a story of your own!

Happy talking - and reading, too!

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.