Volume 2 : Issue 2 (2015)

NARRATION AS A TECHNIQUE FOR COGNITIVE AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT : CHILDRE'S LITERATURE IN INDIA

Since times immemorial, human beings have told stories. Stories are shared artistic or cultural experiences, which are a part of ourfamily or community expressions. All stories are constitutive of life and shape our lives. The ways in which we understand our lives are influenced by the broader culture in the stories we have heard. The dominant stories heard will not only affect the listener in the present but will also have implications for the future actions. They are the core of human happiness as well as health, welfare and continuing development of children. Child development, according to Hall (1988) refers to the qualitative and quantitative changes in an individual. It is a progressive series of orderly, directional, cumulative, coherent and complex changes taking place from the conception. The different aspects of development, physical, intellectual, emotional, motor, psycho-social development change at different rates among different individuals. These aspects are intertwined and throughout life affect each other. The objective of this paper is to focus on the impact of narration of stories on the moral/social and cognitive development of the children. We have taken up Classical, ancient children's literature written in India like, the Panchtantra, the JatakKathayein/Talesand the Hitopdesh and have tried to show how the stories help in social/moral and Cognitive development of the children.

Child Development, storytelling, Ancient literature in India

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