E8: INVISIBLE LESSONS: Storytelling as a teacher

Today we’re getting into the brain! Join me where we explore the timeless power of storytelling—not just as entertainment, but as a transformative teaching tool. Discover how imaginative tales can nurture mindfulness, build emotional intelligence, and spark intuition in both children and adults. In addition, today we’ll discover how stories create neural pathways that support learning, empathy, and memory, making them one of the brain’s FAVORITE ways to absorb values and life lessons. So whether you're a parent, teacher, or curious mind, this episode offers insight into how narrative can shape character and consciousness in gentle, lasting ways.

*For privacy and protection, all children mentioned in this episode are referred to using fictional names or general references. I deeply honor the confidentiality of every child and family I work with.

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Transcript

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Hello and welcome to In a Spiritual Sins Kids, a podcast for parents, teachers, and caregivers seeking to support their children's emotional and energetic development. On the show, we'll blend insights from neuroscience, child psychology, and emotional awareness as we explore natural ways to help kids understand their own energy, stay grounded, and enhance creativity and imagination. Don't forget to check out our sister channel in the Spiritual Sense, where we dive a little deeper into the metaphysical, working to build your intuition, connect with spirit guides, the paranormal, energetic healing, and more. Join me, Stacy Piagno, where we work to bridge the gap between science and spirit. Hello and welcome back to Inner Spiritual Sins Kids. I'm your host, Stacy Piagno. Today I want to share a little science behind what we as teachers do every day in the classroom: storytelling, and how it might be more important than you realize. You know, all language itself emerged through story. As far back as all of our indigenous roots go. However, it seems this way of being has easily become a lost art. Granted, we do teach through stories in school, but I feel like we used to do it more as a society because life was a bit slower. We spent more time talking around the dinner table or sitting around the fire. Many of our grandparents used to naturally teach through stories and didn't even realize the impact they had. Or maybe they did. But there is great benefit in this because the truth of the matter is we learn best through stories. So today I am excited to get into the science behind storytelling. Why is it so beneficial? How can we use it more intentionally? What is actually happening in our children's brain when we tell a story? You know, I'm currently teaching dream interpretation classes. If you're interested, hop over to my website, NasspiritualSense.com. They are so much fun. And I host new classes each month. But through this, I've formed a deep relationship with storytelling. I've now had the opportunity to study not only my own subconscious, but I've seen how all of our subconscious or higher selves teach us through the framework of storytelling. And I won't get into the dream work aspect too deep, but through studying and teaching dream work, I've learned that the psyche has a fascinating way of using stories and things that seem external to us to better help us connect internally. Often in the dream state, for example, our spirit will pull out and use different aspects of us and personify them into other characters and items that seem to be outside of ourselves. However, the brain uses these personifications to actually represent inner aspects of ourselves that need tending to. It's as if these personal parts of us are reaching out to show us a story. These parts of us that need attention are speaking through story. And what's wildly fascinating is that the dream time is not just a place for our spirit to experience these stories, but it's a space where our personal psyche will produce stories that are specifically linked to our lives for guidance. And because we view this information as a story and as something separate from us, it allows us to better view our internal patterns outwardly. So we can better digest the information that we might not be able to pick up on internally because it's hidden within us. And so my point is, through studying and interpreting the dream state, as one example, I've learned how storytelling is not just a tool explained by science. It's not just a tool for the classroom, but it's a tool our body's natural system produces to teach us and help us grasp onto deeper meaning. Storytelling is the body's natural way to teach and absorb information. It creates deep imprints into our system because it again allows us to experience situations or concepts from an outsider's perspective looking in. Stories take us, our ego, our mind, out of a situation so we can better watch and observe, therefore, better helping us understand the totality of the situation, because we can better grasp the big picture from a place of unattachment and therefore have a better ability to work with that story or situation and connect to its message. And so, when we tell stories, especially ones that have morals or underlying messages to our children, they are better able to connect with that teaching because learning through stories is natural to our system. Our brains are wired to absorb meaning, emotion, and values when the information is wrapped in narrative. And when we use stories intentionally, we're not just entertaining our kids. We're awakening their inner truth, we're building empathy, and helping them navigate complex life questions, especially because children are so young and new to life. There's so much complexity to this world that we sometimes have a hard time explaining with just a verbal answer. But when we use stories as a tool, we're creating an actual experience for that child to go through, both visually and emotionally. I mean, we learn by going through experiences. That is the best way to learn. But if you have not yet gone through an experience, because you're a young child and you're only five, the story you use to teach is going to create the experience for you to go through. Therefore, that teaching is way more digestible to our little ones because it creates an experience. So today I want to express the power we have to one, understand how storytelling shapes both spiritual and neurological development, and two, learn how to intentionally choose or craft stories that nurture values we care about, like compassion, courage, gratitude. Storytelling is not just a pastime, it's a tool. And it's a tool we should all be using. So I first want to dive into the neuroscience of this process. I'm gonna give you a little bit of science so you can better understand why this is so important and what is actually happening in our little ones' brains when we tell stories. For one, the brain remembers emotions better than facts. This is the key concept. Within our brain, we have two areas I want to touch on. One is the amygdala, which is responsible for producing emotions, and the other is the hippocampus, which is responsible for organizing and storing memories, along with forming new memories. So we're dealing with emotional processing and our memory center, which is created from our emotions. They're connected. Very important. When our children or us hear stories, we will experience emotions. And when an emotion is sparked, especially intentionally, that's the purpose here, it allows a greater opportunity for learning. Because remember, the brain remembers emotions better than facts. So if we want to teach perseverance, for example, we want to find a story that has this underlying message. Because when kids hear a story about a character who overcomes a challenge, their brains light up in areas related to emotion and reward. And because of this, they remember not just the plot, but the underlying message. And they feel as if they themselves just went through it. Their internal system digests it to then use as background schema to build upon. This is a process called emotional tagging, and it cements memory deeper than just rote memorization. So instead of saying be kind, tell a story where a character's kindness changes someone's life. Kids will remember how it felt, what kindness looked like, and why it mattered. Now, another thing storytelling helps with is cognitive scaffolding. That's a big term, but very important to our children's independent growth process. Scaffolding is a process we use heavily in the teaching world. It refers to the support provided to someone to help someone learn a new concept or skill, especially something just beyond their current ability. So for example, my child wants to learn how to draw a cat. I might scaffold them or support them with this process by showing them how to draw an oval for the body, a circle for the head, and let them finish by themselves. This might be a lame example, but this process is basically when we help guide our children to accomplish something that is just beyond their independent level of performing. And this plays into storytelling because when children grow up hearing stories, they begin to form a greater bank of background schema, which is our mental blueprint for understanding life. The more background schema we have, the easier it is for us to relate to life unfolding in front of us. That's part of how the brain works. We subconsciously pull up background experiences to connect with situations we are faced with. And based on the connections we have previously made to an experience, we will have a larger bag to pull from to imprint future memories and learnings from the situations we're currently going through. So it's important for children to hear and listen to stories as much as possible because it's creating more and more background schema for them to use to basically diagnose the world in front of them. And the more background schema they have, the more it will be pulled up to use as scaffolding for themselves. And when we can purposely choose stories with the intention to teach, think of what that is setting our children up for. I think and hope we all read stories to our children. For one, it's a wonderful time to bond, especially before bed. But what I want to bring into our awareness is how storytelling is not just for leisure. It's not just for connection, but it's a tool we should be using to help shape our children if we aren't doing it already. Bringing awareness to this and understanding the science of all its benefits is what I really want to hone in on. So a story where a character makes a mistake and then fixes it helps kids internalize that actions have consequences. But also that mistakes can be fixed, and they're good because we learn from them. This way, when a child goes through the experiences of making a mistake, they already have a positive outlook on it. Or, depending on the story, they already know there will be a matching outcome to their actions, which will help shape their behavior moving forward. So when we have this background schema presented to us in stories, it's going to help our kids learn concepts faster, especially the next time they make a mistake or the next time they experience whatever that concept in the story was, because they already have context and they will be better able to learn as the situation unfolds and be present with that learning as they go through it, which is so much more enriching to their systems. Think about a time when you heard something or learned something for the first time, and then you witnessed it again in more of a situational manner. The teaching creates a stronger impression and deeper imprint. When we already have something instilled in our memory, and then we hear it or experience it again, the connection between brain centers light up, and that thing we learned or experienced creates a deeper groove or pathway imprinted in our system. So we want to feed these kids as many experiences as much as possible because it will grow their awareness, their resilience, and make processing and organization of their emotions so much faster and clearer. Our brains are pattern-seeking machines. And when we read stories, there's a network in the brain that activates our system to better understand ourselves, better understand time, and better understand our environment. So for instance, because stories have structure, such as beginning, middle, end, kids learn to understand sequence, cause and effect, problem solving. These are the biggest themes we work on in early primary grades, and they are themes that will shape kids' success for the rest of their lives. In addition, reading stories with structure and patterns also strengthens executive functioning skills within our children, such as attention, planning, and flexible thinking. All of these wonderful deep concepts to the brain and to our system all stem from storytelling. Lastly, stories build emotional intelligence. This is so big. You know the importance of this. We talk about it with almost every episode. When children engage with a story, they often activate something called the mirror neuron system. Like you're looking in a mirror. It's the part of the brain that stimulates others' experiences. So basically, whatever the character is going through, the child listening is going to emotionally feel and also go through. It's called feeling with the characters. So this activates the part in our brain responsible for understanding others' thoughts and feelings. And listening to stories regularly can actually strengthen neural pathways involved in empathy and compassion. So a story where a character feels excluded or sad helps children imagine those feelings for themselves and eventually translate that understanding into real life compassion. It helps them again experience what it's like to go through that, which creates real, tangible life situations for them to experience. Even if the situation is just imaginary. There's so much research showing how even just our visualizations engage the brain and body to feel and experience as if something real is happening to our system. And this is true to our thoughts as well, which shows us the importance of what our thoughts are and the impact of what kind of mini movies we play to ourselves. I've talked about that recently. But when we can engage our children in stories to help activate an emotion, they are internally going to start processing what that feels like and how to maneuver through it. So kids who regularly hear emotionally rich stories tend to be more tuned in to others' emotions as well as their own, which helps them grow emotional intelligence. Now, knowing this, what if we incorporated more storytelling in our teachings? And honestly, just in our day-to-day? Is there a way we can produce more teachable moments with the use of stories more often to help grow our little ones' background schema? And you know, I was thinking about this for teachers as well. If we're trying to teach our kids concepts that deal with math, for example, could we maybe find or produce a story with a similar concept? If kids are learning to add and subtract, let's create an experience where they gain or lose something. Can we take something that might be boring and hard to understand, like plotting coordinates on a map, and turn it into a treasure hunt? I think that's like a fifth grade standard, but you get my point. How can we create more enriching and exciting situations for our children and allow story to be the teacher? Let the story do the hard work and allow our kids' systems to naturally pick up on its teachings. Parents, maybe if you're trying to help your kids with homework, the use of story might come into play. I just want to spark your imagination and help us all see that we don't have to overteach. Also, one more thing I want to include. Not only is listening to a story enriching to our children, but allowing them to tell stories is actually one of the homework assignments I used to give in younger grades. For one, this is encouraging them to use their imagination. We talked about the power of imagination a few episodes back. When children tell their own stories, they are growing neural pathways. They're expressing themselves. They're using that right hemisphere of their brain and actually crossing it over to the left hemisphere by giving structure to something imaginary. There's so many benefits. But also, specifically in a school system, we want kids to be able to talk about pictures and discuss relationships between characters. We just discussed how that benefits them, but also this is going to help them be more successful in school as well. Especially when we get into comprehension. When your child is learning to read, the process their brain goes through is first they will learn letters and sounds, then they will learn how to decode words, then they slowly begin to learn the process of reading and decoding larger sentences. But what begins to challenge them is when we start to ask about comprehension. Okay, now they're reading, but what are you reading? What is the meaning? What are the relationships between characters? How does this remind you of something within your own life? And how can we make connections? What is your favorite part? Why? This is when kids who don't read or listen to stories at home start to struggle. And this is where I see a division in my students. The kids who are listening to stories at home, or the kids who are making up their own stories, are the kids who fly through this. They get it. A really great activity for you to enhance your child's comprehension ability as well as grow their neural pathways is to have them look at pictures in a story and retell it using their imagination. We teachers actually do this a lot of the time before we read a story. It's called going on a picture walk. And it engages children in the story we're about to read. Grab a picture book, cover up the words, or maybe your child can't read yet, this is the best time to do it. Ask them to take you on a picture walk. Tell them to use the pictures and what they see from the characters and the setting to tell you a story. This is such a great practice for their growth, and it's going to set them up for success in the classroom as well. So, from a teacher to parent, a little bit of advice for when you are telling or reading a story, especially if there's one with a message or theme you want to teach them. The first time you read, you want to try to let your child hear the story without interruption. Kids absorb more when they're not immediately quizzed or analyzed. So just keep this in mind. When you're done with the story, however, try to ask feeling-based questions. What part of the story made you feel XYZ? Happy, scared, confused. Who do you think was the most brave? And always ask why. This is something kids struggle with is explaining the why behind things. It's our job as teachers to ask kids why. And when parents can hop on board with this, it really advances your child. Kids need practice explaining their thoughts and understanding the importance of why. It will help them step into their character, their beliefs, step into who they are. It helps them advocate for themselves and how they are feeling and thinking. And it's something they need to practice. And so we want to continuously prompt them with why and give them space to try to explain themselves as much as possible. It's very important for their growth. After reading and questioning them emotionally, it's also very beneficial to try to connect the story to real life. Asking them what the story or character reminds them about in their own life helps them connect to the message and bring the energy of that teaching into the left hemisphere of their brain. It takes the symbolism and makes it concrete. So questions like, what does the dragon remind you of in your own life? Have you ever had to be like the hero in that story? And really push for meaningful answers. This is an opportunity we have to again create background schema and to energetically create situations for them to experience. You'll get out what you put in. But even if you don't put a lot of energy into it, the story itself is going to have a great impact. And lastly, if you really want to create enrichment, have your child practice retelling the story or role-playing or draw it. When children act or draw or retell a story, especially those with underlying messages, they begin to embody the wisdom they just learned. And it creates even deeper imprints into their system. So the power of storytelling. It's not just for entertainment, but a transformative teaching tool. There's endless imaginative tales we can use to nurture mindfulness, build emotional intelligence, and spark intuition. Stories create neural pathways that support learning, empathy, and memory. It's our brain's favorite way to learn. And again, it's not just for our kids, but for us too. And perhaps we can be integrating it more often. If you enjoyed today's episode, I hope you use it to inspire those around you. We're going to be having our first special guest next week. You all are in for a treat. Make sure to tune in, and I'll see you next time on In a Spiritual Sense Kids. For those looking to connect further, please feel free to send emails to info at InaspiritualSins.com or hit me up on Instagram where you can find weekly inspiration and updates. I look forward to connecting with you. This show is part of the Mindful Podcast Network.