Family storytelling and the attachment relationship

Abstract

Family storytelling can have a number of profound and long-lasting beneficial effects on children, on parents and caregivers, and on the relationships between them. Stories broaden the child's experience of the world and, in particular, provide an education in human psychology. By showing how the thoughts, feelings and actions of the characters are inter-related, stories increase children's emotional literacy. The storyteller's own emotional responses to characters and plot developments, and her comments on the story, guide the child's emotional responses. Storytelling by a parent in the security of the home can provide an ideal situation for the child to confront such demons as the threat of abandonment. Attachment theory suggests that storytelling by a key attachment figure is especially powerful, and that storytelling may strengthen attachment relationships in important ways.