Week 5 - Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes

Origins of English Nursery Rhymes

Pre-1820s, known as ditties, Tommy Thumb’s songs (UK) or Mother Goose’s songs (US)

• Some are bits and pieces of old ballads and folk songs, not necessarily intended for children

• Some are derived from English music hall songs

• Some are original compositions, written expressly for children (post 1800)

Nursery Rhymes Ranging Themes

• memorable characters

• lively incidents

• violence 

• fantasy

Nursery Rhymes common characteristics

• They’re short

• They rhyme

• They’ve got rhythm

• They’re often humorous

• They’re rarely sentimental

• They’re memorable

• According to Iona and Peter Opie, they’re useful

Some Uses of Nursery Rhymes

• A Apple Pie - learning the alphabet

• One, Two, Buckle My Shoe: learning to count

• Anna Elise: A spoken word/performance game, a test of your prowess

• Bobby Shafto: a love poem, a chance to try on adult roles/feelings

Fairy Tale Common Characteristics

• Like dreams; no cause-and-effect logic

• Talking animals 

• Magic is often linked to a bargain

• the woods

  • unknown, mysterious

  • place of possibility

Origins of Fairy Tales

• Some were oral tales, or “folk tales,” passed down by word of mouth over generations 

• Others were literary fairy tales; stories composed by a known author

  • “Beauty and the Beast” and “Cinderella” come from the French court of Louis XIV

  • Hans Christian Andersen wrote tales in mid-19th-century Denmark that were inspired in part by traditional folklore

Fairy Tales Common Themes

• Origin or creation tales (“pourquoi stories”)

• How did the world and the things of the world begin?

• Why does the sun rise and set?

• Where did the tiger get his stripes?

• tales of wise and foolish behavior (ex: three little pigs)

• the contrast of good and bad behavior (ex: snow white)

• the transition from childhood dependence to adult independence (ex: rapunzel)

Fantasy vs Reality: Developmental Perpsective

• Around 2, imaginative play starts to develop; limited ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality

• Children learn to distinguish between reality and fantasy between the ages of 3 and 5

• By 7, children believe less in imaginary characters (Santa Claus, tooth fairy)

Sharon and Woolley Study (2004)

Showed preschoolers drawings (monster, Santa, a child) and asked questions across four domains:

1. Biological (does X get older every year?)

2. Social (does X eat dinner with family sometimes?)

3. Physical (can someone touch X?)

4. Mental (can X know what we’re thinking?)

• 5 year olds = adult responses

• 4 year olds = better at assigning physical and social properties than biological and mental properties

• 3 year olds = assigned more social properties to beings they thought were real than pretend ones

• Children were then asked to sort the pictures

  • First by “real” and “pretend” 

  • Then by “real” “pretend” or “unsure”

• Children seem to place fantastical entities in a separate category - neither unquestionably real nor pretend, but somewhere in between

• This category could form a natural bridge to the adult category of fantastical entities

Fairy Tales’ Impact

Studies show that young children may “quarantine” info from fantasy stories

• More likely to apply solutions from a realistic story than a fantasy one

Fantastical thinking is important for cognitive development

• Imagination is a sophisticated form of cognition

• Engaging imagination encourages cognitive development