As applied researchers, we introduced story dictation and acting to educators living in Quebec, Canada, via professional development workshops held from 2019 to 2021. We worked with three preschool teachers, one kindergarten teacher who taught 4-year-olds, and six kindergarten teachers who taught 5-year-olds. We went on to study the children’ s stories, the interactions among teachers and children during these activities, and the impact of story dictation and acting on the 4-year-old children’ s language and narrative skills.
Story dictation and story acting can play a positive role in creating a caring community of learners, which is a key part of both developmentally appropriate practice and early childhood program standards.
In celebration of NAEYC’ s 100th anniversary, we revisited the Young Children archive to gather information on the reasons for engaging children in story dictation and acting and the procedures for doing so. Our aims were to honor the contributions of Paley and Young Children authors in this area; to( re) generate interest in the practices, given our conviction of their value; and to guide interested teachers in bringing the practices to their settings. To identify articles in the archive, we entered and combined relevant search terms( such as story, story dictation, story acting, and drama), selecting the ones that focused on Paley’ s approach to children dictating stories and acting them out. In this article, we summarize the benefits of story dictation and story acting, then outline how these practices can be implemented. We close with general guidelines and a few key resources, but we encourage readers to consult our reference list for information most pertinent to their needs.
The Benefits of Story Dictation and Story Acting for Children
While Paley saw story dictation and story acting mainly as platforms for children to share their thinking and connect with peers, researchers have investigated the practices’ effects on children’ s knowledge and skills in various domains, including early language and literacy. Findings in this area have been positive:
› In a groundbreaking study, McNamee and colleagues( 1985) found that 4- to 6-year-olds who engaged in dictation combined with acting told stories that were more complex and coherent than children who only dictated stories.
› Research has shown that children who engage in the practices over time show greater gains than their peers in receptive vocabulary( Cooper et al. 2007), story comprehension( Pesco et al. 2022), and storytelling( Nicolopoulou et al. 2015).
› Story dictation and acting can foster children’ s print awareness and composition skills, each of which are important for later writing( Pesco & MacLeod 2024).
Story dictation and acting can also benefit children’ s psychological, emotional, and social development( Cooper et al. 2007; Cremin et al. 2013; Nicolopoulou et al. 2015). In Young Children’ s September 2013 issue, Mariana Souto- Manning proposed that the practices can affirm children’ s cultural identities and serve as a way to teach“ from a cultural difference paradigm”( 74). She noted the activities’ consistency with Latino / a values regarding oral storytelling and collaboration. She also described one Latino teacher who used story acting to explore themes of oppression and power with the children in his class. These are important matters for pedagogy( Cooper 2021) and in keeping with Paley’ s view that fairness is at the forefront of children’ s concerns( along with fantasy, friendship, and fear).
Spring 2026 Young Children 63