It is well proven that fairy tales support children’s play development and emotional development. In Russia’s Golden Key schools, fairy tales are consciously used to support children’s holistic development. In early childhood education in Australia, fairy tales, through play, function as a source of child development. Through the act of listening, children are able to modify their understanding of the story and observe the ability to connect separate events. At the same time, their concentration skills and attention span are developed, which is especially important for further education and learning.
Fairy tales are shown to be highly crucial to the development of a child's imagination. Fairy tale-inspired thinking gives children the skills to demonstrate their creativity through inventing new stories or transforming a familiar fairy tale. Children's knowledge surrounding reality is generally objective. However, thanks to their imagination, they are able to adapt and conquer it, and understand it in their own way. Their imagination allows them to cross the borders of the real world, thus finding themselves at an incredible, imaginary time, just like the fairy tales’ main character.
Despite themes of conflict or endangerment, fairy tales provide secure, comforting, and supportive feelings, fostering a positive self-image and emotional intelligence in children. Happy endings in fairy tales are found to lessen tension, alleviate anxiety arising from developmental fears, and meet the need for justice among children. When listening to fairy tales, children may be deeply affected by its contents, but at the same time, their imagination matures and develops. And so, fairy tales affect child's emotional, physical and mental development. This is shown in the forming of creative practices inspired by their pictures of adventures that fairy tales' main characters have.
Therapeutic fairy tales can decrease fearfulness while dealing with actual life problems in early childhood. Fairy tales can be used as therapy to address anxiety as well as real-life conflicts during emotional development, showing worldly common truths regarding people and the world around them in a simple manner. By depicting the real world combined with fantastic phenomena, fairy tales compel the child to many reflections and conceptions.
Fairy tales teach children good from evil, and truth from lie, allowing them to deal with conflicting emotions, as they are guided through their thoughts seeking a moral characteristic, encouraging creative thinking and personality growth. Representation of negative characters in these stories contributes positively to emotional development. Research shows that conversations about fairy tales helps a child meet their emotional needs, especially when told in groups with associated acting out.
Finally, fairy tales are inspirational, introducing the meaning of existence to the child and teaching morals, values and proper behaviours – tools essential for mental development, cognitive growth, moral maturity, and creativity – allowing people to think critically and inquisitively.
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Sources:
The Effect of Fairy Tales on the Development of Preschool Children's Imagination (A. Klim-klimaszewska, 2015, University of Natural Sciences and Humanities {POLAND}, ISSN: 2340-1117)
A Study of Fairy Tales as a Source of Child Development in Early Childhood Education (Susan Elaine March, 2018, Monash University )
Therapeutic and Developmental Benefits of Fairy Tales in Early Childhood: a Mini-review (Myrto Patagia Bakaraki , Theofanis Dourbois & Alexandra Kosiva, June 15, 2024, Brazilian Journal of Science, DOI: 10.14295/bjs.v3i8.600)