same way as you were in telling the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I offer them merely as
pointers that may enhance that process.
- Select Your Style of Storytelling
Let me give some examples of how voice adapts to the style of the story. First, if the content of the
story is a cognitive activity such as thinking through a problem, your voice may model the thought-
ful, ponderous nature of the story, being slow, considered, and deliberate. If you are telling a story of
physical activity such as in running a race, your voice style may include the energy, the breathless-
ness, and the activity of participating in the race.
Second, style can be influenced by the emotions the story seeks to communicate, as it does spon-
taneously—our voice sounds different when we are angry, sad, anxious, excited, or relaxed. Have
you had the experience of answering the phone with a simple “Hello” when feeling tired, sad or in
grief and had the caller, who knows you reasonably well, respond with a concerned enquiry, “Are
you okay?” He or she has heard the emotion in just a single word, heard a story in your affective ex-
pression.
If you are telling a child a story that begins with the problem of fear, your speech may be rapid,
your breathing shallower, and the tone of your voice higher; but as you model the resources of re-
laxation, your speech can be slower, your respiration more comfortable, and your tone a little lower.
Reaching the desired outcome, your style of speech may parallel the joy of achievement, expressed
in a lighter, happier tone of voice.
Third, have you noticed how you speak differently to your lover than to your boss, to one gen-
der than to the other, to a child than to an adult? How you use different voices for the different char-
acters in Goldilocks and the Three Bears? We need to look at how we adapt the style of our story-
telling to the story’s characters as well as to the listener to whom the tale is addressed. Your style of
storytelling may be different if the listener is a 2-year-old or a 12-year-old, a girl or a boy, or some-
one with different cultural or religious values from your own. The bottom line here is to ensure our
voice is appropriate to the context, emotion, characters, outcome, and listener of the story.
- Choose Your Rate of Utterance
What happens to the rate at which you observe children speak when they have something exciting
to tell you? How does that rate of utterance alter when they are reluctantly confessing to having just
26 Effective Storytelling for Kids and Teens
EXERCISE 2.11
■ Observe your own styles of communication. Do you talk differently to an adult or
child, a boy or a girl, a teenager or a young kid?
■ Look at using those differences in your storytelling styles to match both the child and
the content of the story you wish to communicate.