Developing Emotional Literacy Through Children's Literature

As a teacher working with traumatised children and young people in a therapeutic special school I first started to understand the power of books and stories in helping children understand feelings and emotions as well as their ability to help children empathise with others. 

When children arrived at the school they had experienced very traumatic lives both within relationships and within schools, often having experienced multiple exclusions. They didn’t like school, were stuck with learning and didn’t trust anyone. Each child came into school for an hour a day for the first week to help them get used to the building, meet staff and start to settle. As I got to know each child I went in search of ‘their book’. Sometimes I would know exactly which book I wanted, but most of the time I needed to wonder around the book shops or second hand shops. As I did, ‘their book’ would reveal itself. 

At other times children would struggle in school, for a variety of reasons, often unknown. It was during these times that I would once more go in search of a book for them. One of the most important times when this happened was when a child who had been with us for several years experienced huge challenges. His anger and violence became difficult to contain. To support him manage we created a part time timetable for him for several weeks to ensure we could keep school and learning positive. During the rest of the time he worked with therapeutic workers on a 1:1 basis using their relationships to both help him regulate and keep things as positive as possible. During this time I was privilege enough to be able to work with him on a 1:1 basis. It was a really difficult and challenging time and so once more I went in search of the book to help me. I found it in a story called Heads and Tales by Barry Tutt. What an amazing book. Each day as he came into our small room to work with me I read a chapter. Whilst I read he calmed and relaxed and played with a few small toy cars whilst he listened. The chapter then became the starting point for the work. Either drawing or making something linked to the story we were reading. The story was about a small group of strange animals who found each other and lived in a forest. One day when they were out in the forest they came across a really, really scary animal called Pandemonium- the most dreadful creature in the whole forest. This of course was just what we needed because we needed to explore the dread of something unknown and other scary things. We also needed to explore how the other creatures in the forest responded to this scary creature. Once we had named this horrible feeling we could explore it, in a safe way through the story. It was helped by the fact that the pictures in the book were brilliant and made us laugh. 

Stories have been important since the beginning of time, they are part of every culture and have been told for generations around campfires, candles and gaslights holding their listeners enthralled. They have been used by adults to help teach children about their heritage, their culture and the values that are important to their communities, about emotions and how to manage them, about relationships and how to both develop trust and repair damage done. Stories pass on customs and beliefs from generation to generation. 

Stories help develop language, vocabulary and how we feel, helping to explain behaviour and cause and effect. They support planning, organisation, empathy and they support children learning to listen and imagine. They are inclusive to all and when told well can capture everyone in the room and whisk them away to another place leaving all their worries or struggles behind for a short time. 

The Importance of Metaphor 

Stories hold magic for children, they include symbolic language of mythical creatures, monsters, heroes and heroines, of terrifying challenges that have to be overcome and of evil that is defeated by a range of characters, from the small and the weak to the brave and the clever. Each character has to experience a range of feelings and emotions and their behaviour and experiences reflect this. Stories seem able to convey meaning, answer problems and solve challenges in ways that everyday communication isn’t able to. Not only do stories take you on a journey but they are able to stimulate children’s imagination and enable them to both play and create their own. Within play or their own writing children get to project their own feelings, fears, dilemmas and anxieties into the characters contained on the page. They can experience how the characters might feel, behave, being brave or clever, failing or losing something important. By experiencing these things within the safety of the story they are practicing how to manage the challenges they face at the moment or the ones they may face in the future. 

Our traditional stories help children to explore difficult concepts or ideas through the use of metaphor rather than by addressing the issue directly. Separation, loss anxiety and fear, anger and sadness are all explored thought the characters of the stories, one step removed and therefore safe to think and experience. They offer a forum to think, share and discuss without making the issues personal. Sometimes if the stories are too direct they are too uncomfortable and the children can’t let them in to hear. When working with a story children take what they need and it is not always what we think they need. Children can explore situations that they may not have experienced in the safety of the story and the storyteller. Others will take the belief that the dangers are always defeated and this then becomes the hope that whatever they meet that is difficult means that it can be managed. Each story means different things to different people. We can often just enjoy the story without knowing why or how it may be working at a deeper level. Many children will return to a story again and again and this can help us understand, that for them, it is extremely important for some reason. 

Developing Thinking Skills 

Hearing stories enable children to set out on a voyage of discovery. They get to ‘try on’ character traits and behaviours and experience emotions within the safety of the story. They get to explore challenges and problems and see how another might experience or solve these. They are able to think, reflect and understand a range of experiences in the safety of the story and their imagination. The experience of a story leads them to experiment with their own, to set out on their own adventure, one of their making. To plan and work out what happens, what challenges they wish to experience, how they wish the story to unfold and how they want it to end. The thinking, reflection and re-working of a story can be incredibly good at supporting children develop their thinking and planning, organisation and sequencing. All of these skills have been shown to be really important to developing positive mental health and wellbeing. 

Between ‘One fine day’ and ‘That was the end of that’ amazing adventures can happen, worlds can be explored and scary monsters beaten. Each story book enables children and young people to explore and think about things, experience feelings and emotions and start to understand another person’s point of view within the safety of the story world. By helping them think about and manage these adventures we give them the tools to manage when life gets a bit bumpy for them, or we enable them to understand something in a different and healthier way without it being overwhelming. We, as the storyteller are there to act as guide and protector while they experience strange and dangerous places or places of fun filled with laughter and happy thoughts. 

Blog written by Alison Waterhouse, an Educational Psychotherapist supporting schools through her Circles for Learning Project. The project works with schools to give children the skills that underpin positive foundations for mental health and wellbeing before mental health becomes a problem.