Are you looking for an activity that will improve your little one’s confidence, language and communication, and give you some insight into what’s on their mind? Look no further than Helicopter Stories.

• Taking part in Helicopter Stories provided children with the appropriate motivation and environment to significantly develop their communication skills, including nonverbal communication, spoken language and literacy - both when talking to adults and other children.
  
  
  
• The technique had a particularly strong impact on children’s spoken language, and provided clear evidence for how children were improving.
  
  
  
• The approach significantly impacted upon children’s confidence, with even some of the quietest children learning to speak up and take part. It developed their sense of agency, as they felt, more and more, they could choose what they wanted to say and be listened to.
  
  
  
• Children became more motivated to engage in literacy activities, such as writing down their own stories and following story transcripts.
  
  
  
• Children developed performance skills, and became more creative in their performance techniques.
  
  
  
• Children grew in their willingness to take on roles with which they didn’t identify, for example playing a role of the opposite gender.

1. Grab a large piece of paper and a pen.
   
   
   
2. Ask your little one to tell you a story. As they do, write it down, word for word. (Don’t worry, it probably won’t be very long! Our pre-school children averaged around three to five lines).
   
   
   
3. Read the story back to them, once. Try to avoid changing anything - even the grammar!
   
   
   
4. Now point or mark out your ‘performance area’. If you have more than one child, you can ask them which parts they would like to play.
   
   
   
5. Read out the story, one line at a time, and encourage your little one(s) to act it out. 
   For example, if they wrote ‘there was a big tree’, you could ask ‘can I see you being a tree?’

• Let your child lead.
  Avoid suggestions or corrections at any stage. If your little one thinks they’re going to be corrected, or that they need to say or do something specific for you to listen or enjoy their story, they won’t be as open or confident. Helicopter Stories are also a great way to embrace how differently your little one sees the world! If you were told to be a tree, you’d probably stand tall and spread your arms wide, but your child may do things a little differently…
  
  
  
• Model language.
  It can be hard to avoid correcting your little one’s grammar - after all, how will they learn? Well, what you can do is model the correct language, without pointing out that they got it wrong. For example, if they wrote ‘The cat goed to shops’, you could read the line, then follow it with ‘Can you show me the cat going to the shops?’
  
  
  
• Remember to give specific praise.
  If you regularly read our blog, you’ll know this one already! Rather than giving them a blanket ‘that was amazing!’ or ‘you’re so good at storytelling!’, try to pick out specific things you liked about your little one’s story and/or performance. Maybe it was the way they embodied a butterfly, or the moment the Big Bad Wolf decided to eat baked beans instead of Grandma… This not only shows them that you engaged with their story, it can also encourage them to create stories for the innate joy of it, rather than for parental praise.
  
  
  
• Keep the stories!
  Not only are these wonderful keepsakes, but, if you go back over your little one’s stories, you’ll very quickly begin to notice how their grammar, language and sense of narrative style develop!

• Evaluation Report of MakeBelieve Arts Helicopter Technique of Storytelling and Storyacting
• Helicopter Stories: Helping Children Make Sense of the World…
• Helicopter Stories: A wonderful tool for showing amazing progress
• Helicopter Stories and The Poetry Basket: Putting Oracy at the Heart of Early Years Practice – Helicopter Stories
• About Vivian Gussin Paley – Helicopter Stories