Teaching Your Toddler To Tell You What Happened

January 15, 2021 Stephanie Keffer

Toddlers work very hard to learn new words during the first three years of their life and combine those words with increasing complexity. These developmental gains propel children toward the ability to talk about things that happened to them or tell simple stories. Storytelling allows your child to reliably tell you about things that happened when you weren’t with them.

Many children begin preschool at around three years old, and it’s great when they can tell you what happened at school that day that was fun, or how they got a bump or a scrape.

3 Tips for teaching toddlers how to tell you what happened

Tip 1 - Who, where, and what happened

The first step in helping your child become a little storyteller is modeling short stories for them about what happened during events when you and your child were both present. There are three key ingredients to include in your model stories: who was there, where you were, and what happened.

For example, “We went to the park. We played with Jesse.” You can talk directly to your child about what you did or tell someone else about a shared experience you had while your child listens. Make sure to allow your child the opportunity to jump in and contribute to the conversation.

Most toddlers begin telling stories of their own just before they turn three years old. At first, these stories may be only one or two sentences long. That’s okay! Just keep practicing!

Tip 2 - Ask questions to build the framework for stories

The next step is to ask lots of specific questions to help your child tell a complete story. Questions like, “Who was there?” “Where did you go?” and “What did you do?” will encourage your toddler to talk about something that happened to them. Remember, you should know the answer to the questions you are asking to make sure the answers are accurate, so choose to practice with a story about an event you were actually present for. Over time, your toddler will begin to include this information without you having to ask the question. Soon, these key story components—who, where, and what—become habitual.

Try to refrain from very broad questions like “What did you do at school today?” Instead, ask specific questions like “What did you eat at snack time?” or “What book did you read with Grandma?” Storytelling is also a great time to ask your child, “How did you feel when ...?” and talk about the emotions that fit with each story.

Tip 3 - Ask broader questions to prompt independent storytelling

Once your child is able to easily recount past events when you ask them specific questions, you can start asking broader questions like “What did we do this morning?” instead of “What did we do this morning at the park?” These broad questions create opportunities for your child to provide more information on their own.
The goal is for your child to include the key story components of who, where, and what happened in response to a single question.

Teaching toddlers how to tell you stories about what happened - 3 at home speech therapy activities ↓

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At home activity for teaching toddler to tell you what happened

Drawing a Story

Materials:

Paper
Crayons, markers, or other drawing supplies
Optional: envelope and stamps if you want to mail your story
Optional: phone to take a picture of the story if you want to send it electronically to someone

Set-up:

Set up paper and drawing supplies on a table or another place where you want to draw together. Start by only having one piece of paper so that you can show your child what you are doing.

Before you invite your child to join you, think about what your\ want your example story to be about. You can make one up, talk about a real thing that happened, or re-tell a single event from a movie/ book that your child is very familiar with. If you have your story planned out in advance, then you will be more confident as you draw and your child will pay better attention.

What to do:

In this activity, you will be helping your child use short sentences to retell a simple “story” that you draw together. You will help them talk about who was there, where they were, and what happened.

You are going to draw a single picture and talk about the event in the story it as you go.

Say, “come here, I’m going to draw you a story! Are you ready? I’m going to tell a story about our dog Bella.” Have your child sit on your lap or next to you so they can watch you draw. Say, “One day, Bella went to the park. Here, I’m going to draw Bella at the park.” Draw a dog and draw a tree. Label things as you draw. Say, “here’s Bella! I’m drawing her tail, I’m drawing her feet. There. Now, I’ll draw the park. Here is a tree, here is a swingset.”

After the first part of your picture is complete, say again, “One day, Bella went to the park. When she was there, a skunk appeared! Oh no!” Draw a skunk, describing it as you go.

When you have drawn your skunk, retell the story so far: “One day, Bella went to the park. When she was there, a skunk appeared! Oh no! The skunk SPRAYED Bella! She’s so mad.” Draw spray lines and say “spray spray spray.”

When your picture is done, retell the whole story: “One day, Bella went to the park. When she was there, a skunk appeared! Oh no. The skunk sprayed Bella. She was mad and went home. The end!”

After you have finished retelling your story, tell your child “Your turn! Can you tell me the story now?” Wait a moment and see what your child says. Chances are, they will say something but it won’t completely cover the three story areas (who, where, what.) So next, ask probing questions to address the three elements that you are working on (“Who was there?”, “Where did she go?”, “What happened?”).

After you and your child are finished with your story, ask your child if they want to draw one of their own. Give them some paper and crayons and see what they ‘draw.’ Sit silently as they work and see if they make a similar story to yours. You can sometimes ask questions like “who are you drawing?” or “what is happening?” Your child may or may not be able to tell a complete story, but it is important that they have a chance to practice.

The actual art that either of you draw is not important. Don’t worry about making your pictures great, it is about the language you model and your child’s engagement with you.

When you are finished, you can mail your child’s story to someone. You can write their words on the bottom of the page like a real book so your child can feel a sense of accomplishment from the activity.

What to say:

Here are some ideas for silly “stories” you can draw and retell:

“One day, Daddy went to Target with [child’s name.] When you were at Target, Daddy rode in the cart and you pushed him! He was too heavy, so you went home. The end!”

“One day, Mommy and Bella went to the grocery store. Bella saw someone selling hot dogs. Bella ran away from Mommy and ate the hot dogs! They got in trouble and had to leave. The end!”

Teaching toddlers how to tell you stories about what happened - 3 at home speech therapy activities (this activity + 2 more) ↓