Once upon a time…begins the storyteller and everyone gathers round for a story…
As we plan our first Accessible Book and Story Festival we have been thinking about just how rich the world of sensory stories is. So many people telling so many stories with so much skill and creativity!
We wanted to share a little about our approach to sensory storytelling here at My Kind of Book. We run regular sensory storytelling sessions with adults and children with additional needs, in schools, day services and respite centres. Our approach is generally based on the oral tradition of storytelling.
This is an ever-evolving tradition which originates in the days before books (and well before screens!) when people gathered round the fire to tell stories of an evening. Stories were told – as the old Scottish Traveller Proverb goes – eye to eye, mind to mind, heart to heart.
In this tradition the storyteller is a bit like a jazz musician; there may be a script, the storyteller will certainly have a story plot to follow, but there is also a certain amount of freedom to improvise or adapt in the moment. Many people who use sensory stories emphasise the need for complete consistency as the story is repeated. We agree that in many situations consistency may be the most important thing, particularly in an educational context. But we would make a plea not to forget how powerful it can be to prioritise listening and reacting in the moment to the people present, to every vocalisation or change of facial expressions or difference in body language or even in breath. As we react and adapt in the moment our story becomes a conversation.
People with complex needs often find that they are excluded from conversations because of communication difficulties. This idea that a story can become a form of conversation may be an unusual one, but it is this feeling we are striving for when telling a story, whether one-to-one or in a group. When a story session is working we are listening as hard as we are telling, there is a lot of to-and-fro between the storyteller and the story group members and there are many opportunities to join in. (The sensory props help with this – offering people different ways of taking part in the story – banging a drum, squeezing a tactile toy etc.)
We are all creating the story together. In this way the story session really does become a ‘conversation’ – a conversation that allows people to take part who might otherwise struggle to join in with everyday conversations.
For more information about storytelling in the oral tradition have a look at the Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland website.
Or the National Storytelling Network of America:
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See parts one and two of this three part blog post on sensory stories: