Stories: a part of children’s rights
Stories and their dramatisation through play are at the core of human happiness and the development of children and young people. They are universally important for the health and welfare of all children. This belief is enshrined in the Convention of the Rights of the Child (1989) which was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations:
- Parties recognise the right of the child to rest and leisure, and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child, and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.
- Parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life, and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity.
Our cultural and artistic life belongs to our individual, social and national identity. We are defined by our culture and have an ingrained relationship with our ‘historic self’, often at an unconscious level. Stories are a part of our history and ancient past. Now that we live in a multicultural society, we also have a much greater resource of stories to draw upon, and it is interesting to note how many versions of the same story turn up in different cultures. The story of Red Riding Hood is a good example and it is also known as ‘Little Red Cap’. There is much speculation about what this story is really about at a symbolic level. Professor Lahad suggests that one interpretation is that a young child is given tasks beyond her age and capability. He asks:
So why is the most remembered part of the story the moment when she opens the door and sees: ‘There lay her grandmother with her cap pulled over her face, and looking very strange.’ Why is she not running away?
(Lahad, 2012, pviii)
Lahad says that one lesson from the story is the fact that Red Riding Hood has ‘frozen’ when she says:
- Oh Grandma, what big eyes you have?
- Oh Grandma, what big ears you have?
- Oh Grandma, what big teeth you have?
Grandma – who is usually an archetypal figure of care and nurture – has turned into the terrifying, monstrous being, and the child’s ‘fear response’ part of her brain has taken over. The amygdala or ‘reptilian brain’ is the most primitive and old part of our brain. It reacts to danger but also signals when we need food, drink, shelter and safety. However, many children ‘at risk’ have other fears contained in their amygdala, for example, when they grow up in a violent family.
The mammalian brain is part of the limbic system and is shared with other mammals. It is responsible for the growth of nurture and care. Grandmother would usually be associated with the nurturing brain rather than the reptilian brain.
The executive brain is where we make decisions after weighing up the evidence, and where we reflect and consider the implications of what we are doing. Higher order thinking takes place in this part of the brain.
The reptilian, mammalian and executive brains are all useful when considering the developmental stages of children and the level of storytelling that would be appropriate.
Storytelling and the brain
With the development of research in neuroscience, it is possible to understand more and more the importance of play, the arts and stories for brain development.
The left hemisphere of the brain is for numeracy, logic, sequencing and facts. The right hemisphere is concerned with feelings, creativity, the arts and intuition. It is also responsible for ‘the whole picture’ whereas the left hemisphere is concerned with ‘the bits’.
Generally speaking, western education focuses on education for the left hemisphere more than the right. The arts are seen as ‘wishy-washy’ instead of the scientific facts that are reasoned through logic! That side of the picture is slowly changing as researchers are increasingly learning to understand that the two hemispheres of the brain have to work together. For example, we form a hypothesis through a hunch or an intuition, and then use our logic to prove or disprove it. Yet when a school is under pressure to perform well in exams, the art and drama classes are often cancelled and replaced with extra revision time.
Early education concentrates on learning through play, and the freer the play the better. However, as the child gets older, there needs to be a gradual balancing but it should never become out of balance where the left hemisphere dominates the right.
There is newer research that demonstrates the influence of storytelling on the brain. We need to understand the following four main areas to support the case for the importance of storytelling.
- Dopamine
- Mirror neurons
- Neural coupling
- Cortex activity
Dopamine
The brain releases a neurotransmitter called dopamine into the system when there is a pleasurable, emotional event. This is important because it helps us to remember the story more easily.
Therefore, we need to think about how our storytelling can always be a ‘pleasurable, emotional event’. Stories that are read out like telephone directories will not engage anyone. We can all remember the party-spoiler who tells a monotonous tale for the umpteenth time at a family get-together. The story needs to have timing and tone, vocal variation and suspense. It needs to catch our attention.
Mirror neurons
The mirror neurons feed back external happenings and actions. When these actions are pleasurable, people experience similar feelings both to each other and to the storyteller.
The most recent discovery in neuroscience is the exciting knowledge of mirror neurons. They make a huge impact on the brain of the developing child in terms of the way adults behave, as well as the ‘role-modelling’ for family life events and the sharing of stories and performances. We share the magic moments of a story often with a collective response, just like an audience in a theatre; at its simplest: ‘He’s behind you!’ or ‘Oh no he didn’t!’ However, people in the audience often have both an individual and a group response at the same time, whether it is comedy or tragedy.
Neural coupling
A story activates parts of the brain that allows the listener to turn the story into their own ideas and experience. Listeners’ brain activity mirrors the speaker’s brain activity with a delay.
(Gross et al, 2010)
Extensive research has shown that our neurons ‘couple’ with others during communication, and in particular during storytelling. Prophets and charismatic leaders have shown that we can be swayed by a story that has an emotional content as well as appealing to our ‘here-and-now’ sensibility.
Cortex activity
When the brain processes facts, there are two main areas that are activated. However, a well-told story can engage many areas of the brain, including the motor, sensory and frontal parts of the cortex.
The importance of storytelling is shown by the fact that it involves several parts of the brain. The motor part is engaged through both our physical reactions and our gestures. We have sensory reactions such as tension, pleasure, disgust, surprise. The frontal lobes are involved in problem solving, memory, impulse control and language, as well as other important functions.
The connection between the two brain hemispheres and stories has been demonstrated in recent research. Michael Gazzaniga is a cognitive neuroscientist with a particular interest in the right and left hemispheres of the brain. He suggests that our left hemisphere organises our memories into stories. He says that it is not only that humans love stories, they need them!
What stories give us in the end is reassurance. And as childish as that may seem, that sense of security – that coherent sense of self – is essential to our survival.
(Gazzaniga, 2016)
Stories can give us new insights, different endings and an idea of the whole picture which can be very reassuring when we get bogged down in the bits! It seems that our brain needs stories in order to bring coherence to our lives.
So god made one more
person and filled
their brain right up to the top, with
stories, songs and sparkly words.
And he sent the storyteller down to
Earth to tell stories and to sing songs.
To tell wise tales and sing wisdom back
into the foolish human beings.
(Pomme, 2006, p12)
This chapter is a vindication in every sense for the essential importance of storytelling through children’s rights, the body and the brain and as a moral imperative.
