ABSTRACT
A major theme that emerged in the UK evaluation of MakeBelieve Arts’ Helicopter Stories discussed in Chapter 2 was the way children were supported in their storytelling and story acting. Support came both from the adult acting as sympathetic scribe, and the attentive audience when stories were acted out on stage. In the present chapter I see such supportive activity not simply as giving voice to the child narrator, but as an extended process of collaborative creativity. The initial transcription of a child’s story involves an adult scribe collaborating with the child and, in various ways, co-creating the narration. Other children may also contribute to this process (see Faulkner, Chapter 5). In acting out the story, the adult managing the activity, children acting out roles, and children and adults who make up the audience, all contribute to an enhanced performance of the narrative. Through these collaborative and facilitative processes all participants contribute to the production of a child’s story. The value to the child is not simply that people listen to them, but that they work on the story: the story is worth the effort that others bring to its development.
