A Moment with Dr. Moore

Big Feelings and Books

All cultures across time have used stories to teach children key social and emotional skills. For example, Aesop in ancient Greece told short fables, all ending with a kernel of truth that sums up the story’s meaning. You’ve likely heard that slow and steady wins the race from The Tortoise and the Hare and that words have weight from The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Perhaps you’ve seen that planning pays off from the Grasshopper and the Ant or that every act of kindness counts from The Lion and the Mouse.

These stories have survived for thousands of years and not just because they pass on life lessons. They’re also fun to read, like Abiyoyo, a story based on a South African folk tale and written by the famed musician and social activist Pete Seeger. It’s about a magician and his son who are kicked out of their village for playing too many tricks on people. But when a giant named Abiyoyo comes to town, they use their special talents to defeat the giant and save the day. The magician’s son plays his ukelele to get Abiyoyo to dance so fast that he falls down, and the magician uses his wand to make Abiyoyo disappear.

The book combines words and pictures, along with music, which is a passion of mine as a singer. So, I loved reading it to children long ago when I was a Head Start teacher. I had a whole lesson plan for Abiyoyo, and I’d like to pass on some tips to engage children in the book while you promote their social and emotional growth. For example, you can teach children the Abiyoyo song and have them sing it faster and faster until Abiyoyo falls. You can encourage the children to chant “Zoop!” every time the father uses his wand to make something disappear and be sure children know the meaning of the word disappear. While reading the book, involve the children in a discussion about why the villagers wanted the boy and his father to leave, and how it made the two of them feel. Then discuss the unique talents the boy and his dad use to save the town, and how children can use their own special talents to help their friends.

Steps like these are part of dialogic reading, an approach in which children and adults interact to promote the growth of children’s language skills. The main goal of this approach is to encourage children to engage actively in exploring stories by making connections and asking questions instead of just listening to a story. And while the adults read, they guide the children in understanding the words and absorbing the values present in a story. So, dialogic reading serves a dual purpose. Not only does it enhance language learning, but it also fosters social and emotional skills in young children.

The right books can help children cope with the big feelings they have as they find their way in an often-confusing world. As research has shown, reading picture books with social content has a marked impact on the major components of social and emotional learning: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. A 2020 study from Early Child Development and Care showed that children who heard stories where the main character was rewarded for sharing or where the main character faced negative outcomes for failing to share were more likely to share candy than the control group. Similarly, a 2024 study from the Journal of Moral Education showed that stories in which the main character feels guilty for not sharing have the greatest impact on children’s willingness to share. And in 2016, a study from the International Journal of Play confirmed that children display more helpful behaviors and engage in higher-quality social interactions after being read storybooks with moral lessons and prosocial content.

Still, the context in which children hear a story matters, too, so educators and parents play a pivotal role in getting life lessons across. The more we understand about the developing brain, the clearer it becomes that children need interaction. They are constantly learning, but they need adults, voices and interactions for that learning to take place. So, the crucial advantage of a picture book may be that a baby, toddler or preschooler needs an adult to make the book work by telling the story, producing sounds and bringing the pictures alive. The child is using the adult to make the book talk. Meanwhile, the adult is using the book to make the child talk, leading to an interaction that happens best on a lap or during circle time at school, with lively stories and colorful illustrations.

Dialogic reading affects how both children and adults absorb a book’s social and emotional lessons, according to a study that appeared in the Early Childhood Research Quarterly in 2013. All parents who participated in the study received one book a week over the space of a month, along with instructions to read the book four times per week to their children. Parents in the control group received no further guidance while parents in the intervention group were told to read the books interactively by first focusing on a book’s vocabulary and plot, then moving on to its social and emotional aspects, including how they related to a child’s own life. And this way of reading led parents and children in the intervention group to refer more to a book’s social and emotional themes than their counterparts in the control group. The rich conversations that ensued from interactive reading in the intervention group made a difference, as the study pointed out.

Research also shows that children absorb more from a print version of a story than from a digital version that an adult reads to them from a tablet. There’s something special about turning pages that encourages children to pick up the broad ideas in a book. Besides, print books are visible conversation pieces. Browsing books on a shelf can be a social experience that sparks discussion as children share perspectives on the books. Flipping pages back and forth together, without that distracting blue-light glow, builds both reading skills and human bonds, the basis of social and emotional learning.

The quality of books counts, too, in promoting social and emotional learning. So, parents and educators should keep several factors in mind when choosing books to advance social and emotional skills. The books should contain age-appropriate content and use familiar language. They should have characters and stories to which children can relate. They should be ethnically and culturally diverse. They should also offer responses or solutions to the broad issues that play a role in children’s lives. And educators can find guidance for selecting books like these from Essentials for Working with Young Children, the Council’s textbook for educators who are earning their Child Development Associate® (CDA) Credential™.

Some recommendations for books with important life lessons also come from educators who we’ve featured in CounciLINK in recent years. One of the books they love is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein about the importance of loving others and sharing what you have. Another is The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister, about a fish who makes friends by giving away some of his glittering scales. The Bad Seed by Jory John shows that we can change the way we behave, and Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss explains the role of both trials and triumphs in finding your path in life. Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes is another hit, which shows the importance of moving ahead and seeing the good in every situation. Then, there’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, which explores the role of healthy eating habits, along with the promise of transformation, and it’s one of the books I enjoyed reading to my classes as a Head Start teacher.

I also loved reading Where the Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak’s book about the power of imagination, loneliness and love. It’s the story of Max, a small boy of four or five, who is sent to his room without supper for daring to suggest that he is more powerful than his mother. He escapes from his room to a fantasy world filled with wild things that he rules over as their king. The pictures show that Max is having a wonderful time, but he soon grows tired of all the rumpus and the responsibility of being king. He also misses his mom, so he decides to return home and fights off the wild things’ pleas for him to stay. Upon his return, Max finds his supper waiting for him, and it’s still hot, which warms his heart. His mother has forgiven him and loves him despite his tantrums and wild feelings, as Max comes to see at the end. And that’s an important message that can help all our youngest learners thrive. When children feel they have unconditional love, who knows the places that they’ll go!

References

Aram, D., Fine, Y., and Ziv, M. (2013). “Enhancing Parent-child Shared Book Reading Interactions: Promoting References to the Book’s Plot and Socio-cognitive Themes.” Early Childhood Research Quarterly 28 (1), 111-122.

Kohm, K. E., Holmes, R. M., Romeo, L., and Koolidge, L. (2016). “The Connection Between Shared Storybook Readings, Children’s Imagination, Social Interactions, Affect, Prosocial Behavior, and Social Play.” International Journal of Play 5, 128–140.

Yao, Z. and Enright, R. (2020). “The Influence of Moral Stories on Kindergarteners’ Sharing Behavior.” Early Child Development and Care 190, 891–901.

Yu, H., Gai, X., Chen, X., Xu, J., and Zhang, P. (2024). “Moral Stories Reading with Internal Negative Reinforcement Enhance Children’s Sharing Behavior.” Journal of Moral Education 1-27.