Stories that matter

Nidhi is fast becoming a story teller and commentator. Her first story was a sentence. "Patti dammu" - meaning patti fell down. One of our neighborhood patti's slipped down a couple of stairs and had a small fall. Nidhi saw that and it stayed in her mind. So it became a story that she continued to tell people (and of course I had to provide the context and elaborate) for the next few days. Slowly the number of times she would recall that event and want that "story" to be re-told reduced. I think this happened for two reasons. One, she made sense of the story and two, other stories have filled up her life. The stories generally are related to events that have happened in the past or recently and are very varied.

When I mean story, I don't mean stories from a book, which Nidhi does refer to sometimes. But mostly Nidhi's stories are all about her world - which includes people, places, things, her toys, books, animals, birds, rain, food and everything else that she can experience. For example she will remember things that others have done for her and those will become a story that she tells. Thatha balloon oodhi - grandpa blew the balloon for me, kaathu poochu - air went out of the balloon, amma thanni oooo, nidhi thanni pluck pluck - amma poured water in the tub and nidhi played in water. And these become stories as I elaborate it in further detail. In other instances, the stories will be related to what has happened to her - Nidhi kosu kacchi - Mosquito bit Nidhi, Nidhi dammu - Nidhi fell down, Nidhi stool dammu - Nidhi fell down from the stool etc. Still other stories are related to routine events and everyday life such as Nidhi park, amma dress, Nidhi dress, amma pappap, Nidhi pappap - meaning Nidhi going to park, before that amma and nidhi change dress and put on chappals. Appa bandak potu office meaning appa puts helmet (bandak is her word for helmet, dont ask us why!) and goes to office. These days we are told by Nidhi what we must do when we make her kanji (the order of things), what we must do before we go out (bag potu - put the bag on), and she comments on our every move. amma mamam done - amma finished with food, appa bath done, etc. But the best story so far for me has been this. Nidhi dammu, amma thooki, amma huggie, amma ice - meaning Nidhi fell down, amma lifted her, hugged her and put ice for her. And this was totally her story a few minutes after she fell down in the exact same order. I was zapped!

While I had no doubt that story telling is a powerful "educational tool", it's importance and natural role in early language development is coming home to me. I don't meant story telling in the sense of a very rigid process, but as a very fluid everyday routine. For example, everyday when Satish would come back home, I would tell him something that happened that day, a story. Nidhi would listen and either repeat it, add to it or nod her head in approval :) At other times when people visit us, I would remind Nidhi of their visit by asking her who came, what did they do with her, etc. It becomes her story of what stayed in her mind from their visit. For example, anna chuttu (anna spinned) is a story for her which i elaborate to her as - yes, when siddharth anna came he spinned that toy for you and you enjoyed it. Nidhi also has a picture album of people who are frequent visitors or have spent some time with her that she can remember of. So when we look at those pictures, stories trickle in as well. This picture album is kept along with her books and she can pick it up and look at it any time she wants. Often she will want us to "read" it with her.

Nidhi's language learning (and perhaps other children's as well) has been greatly facilitated due to listening to stories of her life again and again and by re-telling them several times. So go ahead and tell those stories to children that matter to them - the stories of their lives, the story of what they are experiencing.