How Writing Starts with Oral Storytelling

Even with all our current technology creating controversy over how plugged-in this generation of children is, oral story-telling in its purest developmental form is still flourishing. Children want to tell their stories. They seek out anyone willing to listen. Creative, right-brained children in particular embrace this activity and it serves an important developmental venue to writing.

The process to expressing ideas through writing for a right-brained person isn’t often produced until the 11-13 year old stage of development. But they are absolutely developing their process until then through important steps from the visual (a right-brained person’s strength) to verbal (a left-brained person’s strength). My oldest son represented it well. He began at 3-5 years old drawing single pictures. Between 5-7 years old, the brain development stage where they stay in their strength, he started sequencing or categorizing his pictures and labeling them. At this same stage, he began oral storytelling, moving from the visual to the verbal (where he would translate the visual mind picture into oral words). At 8-10 years old, where integration of the strengths of the less dominant side of the brain begins, my oldest son moved to making comics (combining the visual with the addition of words) and video-making (creating moving visuals with oral words). Finally, he completed the process at 11-13 years old, the stage where the brain is fully integrated with both sides of the brain, though a dominant side still remains, by writing a script (a right-brained writing genre strength) and a fictional novel (another right-brained writing genre strength). Other right-brained writing genre strengths are poetry, lyrics, and fan fiction (anything with a visual element).

Thus, oral storytelling is often a child’s first attempt (usually between 5-7 years old) at organizing their ideas, building a storyline, and entertaining an audience.

Organizing their Ideas

A right-brained child sees a story complete in their visual minds. It’s a big step for them to translate that whole picture into a sequenced story. At first, it could come out as a big brain dump. As the listener, a parent could ask relevant questions to help them sort it out and deliver the story in a way that makes sense. In this way, a parent can be a great resource as a creative child develops this skill that later, when developmentally appropriate to this type of learner (typically 11-13 years old as shown above), can lead to an easier transition to expressing their ideas in writing.

My sweet great nephew, 5 years old, telling his dream to his mom, who is doing a great job asking questions for more details and being interested to encourage his creativity. My adult children tell me now that when they used to share their dream stories with me or each other, it was often interspersed with their desire to tell their other stories. In other words, these may be their dreams or an opportunity to share their stories from their imaginations, or a combination thereof.

Building a Storyline

I remember when my oldest son was between 5-7 years old, his father would tell him oral made-up bedtime stories. He often used movies or books to inspire his own storylines. My son noticed and began to want to tell his own oral stories. From my book, “At first, my son told stories similar to his father’s… Eventually, he ventured into completely original storylines.” This form of “mirroring” other’s work (often called copying or plagerizing in school) was a natural way for a child to be mentored in how to create interesting storylines.

Entertaining an Audience

Seeking listeners of their parents, siblings, and friends for their oral storytelling venue is often our children’s first attempt at assessing entertainment value. Because they are me-centered in their brain development, it’s not an ideal time for critiquing. There are several redirection options toward which a parent can lead an enthusiastic storyteller. At the time of my son’s oral storytelling stage occurred, he enjoyed tape recording his oral stories so he could hear it back and enjoy it for himself as he practiced his craft. Today’s audio recording and other technologies could afford the same benefit.

Some parents and teachers want to help encourage this storytelling by transcribing these stories and creating a written book for their child. If this is done sincerely as a way to support a creative child’s process, then go for it if it interests the child. If it’s to assuage fears because our creative children don’t follow the typical writing scope and sequence found in school, as long as we don’t transfer those fears to our children, it can still be harmless. Otherwise, I never did this and the natural right-brained process to writing did unfold anyway.

Open-ended learning environment tip: Set up a recording center (video and/or audio) where children can freely access and tell their stories. Afterward, they can request to 1) view it again themselves and/or with invited friends/family, 2) have a video/audio copy made to keep, or 3) have it transcribed.

The current scope and sequence found in school can fit a left-brained learner well. They are word-based thinkers as their strength in the early years. During the 5-7 year old stage, short sentences and/or short copywork or a journal entry might be right up their alley. But for right-brained children, trade this out for oral storytelling or conversations on something that interests them (see this great article about that here). Oral storytelling is here to stay despite technology because it fits the learning developmental stage of creative children that fits their strength during the 5-7 year stage. Right-brained children will always seek an outlet for their creative expression. In fact, I found technology, including video games, movies, and videos, were added inspiration and fodder for their creative expressions through oral storytelling and the other stages of development toward writing for right-brained children.