Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Any real-life experience can be turned into a story. Make a kite with your child. Go on an adventure in the forest together. Think about a memorable day in your child’s life such as a birthday party or trip to the zoo. If you have photos from these real-life experiences, even better! Use these experiences to create a story.
Create a comic or story book online.
Writing with pen and paper can be boring. Kids love technology so let’s use this as a way to get them to create stories. There are many online resources available. Your child can create a comic strip or a story book online. Creating a comic strip can help your child practice writing dialogues. It’s fun and interactive!
Here are some free resources you can easily use:
- My Story Book
- Storyboard That (Basic Version)
- Pixton
Use puppets
Make a story about an adventure that the puppet went on (e.g., the puppet can go on a holiday, the puppet can be captured by pirates). Bring the story to life with some props. You can even create a puppet theatre. It’s easy to set one up. A cardboard box or an old photo frame can do the job. Don’t forget to film or take photos of the play to talk about it later.
Use costumes
Put on one piece of clothing like a hat or a cape can be enough to turn whoever wears it into a new character. Involve your child’s siblings. Your child can take the director role and instruct what everyone does in the story. Don’t forget to film or take photos of the story so you can talk about it later with your child.
Make a story book
If you child loves to draw, have them make a story book. A story book can be easily put together with some paper, scissors and some string.
Your speech pathologist can help too!
Story writing is a multi-layered process. Your speech pathologist can support your child to develop story structure and language. They can help with developing descriptive language, the ability to construct sentences that are well organised and grammatically correct and organise events in a logical way that makes sense.
Hopefully, these tips will change the way your child thinks about story writing. It’s not something totally boring but can actually be quite FUN! Your child will feel more positive about story writing. When your child is doing something fun, they are more likely to engage and learn from the experience