Brent Council held a 2 day Early Years conference for educators who work with young children at Brent Civic Council. Each day was filled with key-note speakers giving passionate talks about mental health, communication, play and neurodiversity. Kerry Murphy – Early Childhood and Neurodiversity Specialist gave a brilliant key note speech and ran a workshop on self-directed play in neurodivergence. It was eye opening to hear her thoughts on looking at play through an intersectional lens and refreshing to hear her express the principle of the unique child – it is ok that we are different from one another. Essentially there is no ‘right or wrong’ way to play.
Sensory Storytelling
There were a plethora of workshops for everyone to attend and I was brought in to run a workshop about Sensory Storytelling. It was such a pleasure to meet carers, childminders and staff from a variety of nurseries and children’s centers who attended my workshop. I devised a session to inspire them with sensory storytelling techniques and ways to boost their confidence when telling a story to early years children without the aid of a book. We began by discussing common challenges such as:
- remembering a story
- holding their attention
- improvising / being imaginative
If you would like to remember a story to tell, I always encourage everyone to get to know their story first and feel comfortable retelling it in their own words. If you can’t find a willing ear to listen, I say “tell it to the sky, tell it to the trees – let your story get carried away with the breeze.” Nursery workers who are also grandparents and parents, shared that they are often asked to make up a story from young children in their care and so we discussed ways to play with simple vocabulary to experess the same thing and how to bring characters to life with their voice and bodies – all helping to bring the tale to life and ignite the imagination in their early years listeners.
Sensory storytelling gives everyone of all abilities an opportunity to experience the story in a variety of ways using different senses. I use music, small percussion instruments, colourful scarves, soft toys, feathers and sometimes a spray of water! My attendees had a chance to try this out and experience a tale with me. It was lots of fun and everyone brought their playful selves to the workshop, reminding us that if we’re having fun, so will our young listeners. In this way I aim to empower others who are not aiming to be professional storytellers but want to use and tell stories in their field to young children.
I’ve incorporated many of my techniques into my storytelling sessions at SEND schools where I will adjust how I tell the tale, according to their needs. If you’d like to know more or wish to book me for Sensory Storytelling training with your practitioners or students, please get in touch