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Children are often only concerned about themselves, and there is scientific reasoning as to why that is good for them. When children’s brains are developing, they rarely have the time or energy to worry about things outside of themselves until a higher level of maturity. At younger ages, our brains are only focused on making sure that we understand what is going on around us physically and that we are prepared emotionally. Then, once we are ready, we can begin to develop the part of the brain that deals with empathy, understanding what other people are thinking, and even larger abstract concepts. For teachers who are helping to guide these children through some concepts that might be more challenging than their brains bargained for, there are some resources and methods that are extremely helpful, namely, storytelling. Storytelling is a good way to communicate abstract ideas and concepts to children because stories are ingrained into who we are as humans, historically and physically, as well as being a captivating way to help young audiences recall difficult factual material.  Storytelling helps students learn without them even realizing it!

Before we talk about storytelling, though, we need to define what an abstract concept is. Researcher Dumontheil describes it as, “thoughts that are self-generated and stimuli-independent, in contrast to stimulus-oriented, perceptually-derived information” (2014). They go on to say that abstraction is relational and temporal, having to do with long-term goals, past and future events, and focusing on the relationships between representations (2014). Using an example, concepts can be understood as concrete and abstract. Eating dinner can be a mixed concept. Concrete parts of dinner are the setting (room, table, café), with relevant objects and actions (dinner plate, silverware, and eating or drinking). The abstract parts of eating dinner, however, would have to do with the relational aspects surrounding the act of eating, such as the fulfillment of goals and motivation (satiating hunger), emotion (pleasure), and even the added layer of social dining. All in all, Barsalou et al explain, “Abstract concepts integrate situations in ways that are essential for comprehending what is happening in a situation, making accurate predictions about what is likely to occur, and selecting actions that yield desirable outcomes” (2018). So, in summary, abstract concepts are vital, relational to social life and time, and help us determine our future actions. It seems our students should be grappling with them as soon as possible.

There are some factors that limit a student’s growth, however. Namely, the child’s own brain. For adolescents whose brains are still developing, the Rostral prefrontal cortex (RPFC) has not yet reached maturity. The RPFC controls much of the ability to detach oneself from the environment and to elaborate, evaluate, and maintain abstract rules and information, as it is involved in reasoning, problem-solving, and, more generally, abstract thinking. The medial aspect of RPFC, or medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), is implicated in social cognition, that is, the understanding of other people’s minds. In the last decade, large-scale magnetic resonance (MRI) studies have shown that the RPFC is one of the last brain regions to reach maturity in humans (Dumontheil, 2014). Because children are still developing the ability to elaborate and process abstract thoughts, but because it is still important for them to be able to understand this way of thinking, teachers and role models are faced with the problem of trying to create models of learning that fosters understanding that is conceptually manageable for students but is still entertaining for their shorter attention spans.

Storytelling is one of the best ways to accomplish this. Gupta and Jha, researchers from the International Journal of Indian Psychology, say, “Storytelling elicits emotions that propel the functioning of the brain acting as a defining ingredient that propels, guides, and focuses our cognitive system in our goal-seeking activities” (2022). Goal-seeking activities are some of the exact ones described in the definition of abstract concepts, which are what children need to understand. Gupta and Jha, go on to explain that “Storytelling is a bidirectional process between a storyteller and the listener that aids in the release of chemicals like cortisol, oxytocin, and dopamine. These chemicals are responsible for attention, empathy, and pleasure, respectively” (2022). Storytelling has a lot to do with the emotional intelligence involved with understanding abstract concepts, introducing problem-solving and multiple perspectives, and helping especially younger children, learn to carry a theme or moral through a conversation.  There are also positive effects relationally between the speaker and listener. “Results indicated a strong correlation between the speaker’s brain and the listener’s brain, signifying a positive effect of storytelling” (Gupta and Jha, 2022). With all of these benefits, the only question teachers have left is, “How can I implement more storytelling in the classroom?”

Some of the ways that teachers can both help students understand abstract concepts more easily through storytelling are through carefully selected texts for reading aloud, dramatic play, puppetry, or looking for ways to include digital storytelling (Huth et al., 2016). While reading aloud is beneficial for auditory learners, dramatic play and puppetry can be beneficial for kinesthetic learners. Digital storytelling is a constantly evolving field as more technologies are being introduced daily, and the possibilities of how a story can be mediated are endless. Some examples of digital storytelling for the purpose of learning abstract concepts are through animation, video, audio and more mediated communication devices. Ways to implement storytelling like this in the classroom could be showing films and asking students to evaluate them, listening to podcasts together, or having the students present their own digital stories. One good example of a story that brings deeper abstract thinking to younger audiences is SAOL by An Tobar Nua. By bringing in bigger topics that are deeper than what the students would normally understand, it is easy to see how they can grasp difficult concepts and perspectives through a storytelling medium.

Students will be running into big questions, big thoughts, and big concepts for the rest of their lives, and they are likely running into them now even if their brains have not caught up. Being able to prepare students for the wide world of abstract thought, relational situations, and temporal planning in a way that is easily accessible to them seems to be best completed through a good story, which we have been doing forever, and we can continue in new ways today.

Works Cited

Barsalou, L. W., Dutriaux, L., & Scheepers, C. (2018). Moving beyond the distinction between concrete and abstract concepts. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373(1752), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0144

Dumontheil, I. (2014). Development of abstract thinking during childhood and adolescence: The role of rostrolateral prefrontal cortex. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 10, 57–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2014.07.009

Gupta, R., & Jha, M. (2022). The Psychological Power of Storytelling. International Journal of Indian Psychology, 10(3), 606–614. https://doi.org/10.25215/1003.061

Huth, K., Brown, R., & Usher, W. (2021). The use of story to teach religious education in the early years of primary school: A systematic review of the literature. Journal of Religious Education, 69(2), 253–272. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40839-021-00140-y

Malinverni, L., & Pares, N. (2014). Learning of Abstract Concepts through Full-Body Interaction: A Systematic Review. Educational Technology & Society, 17(4), 100–116. https://doi.org/https://www.jstor.org/stable/jeductechsoci.17.4.100