Storytelling: A Communication Goal

By Andryce Andres / July 2026

Percentiles have no place in authentic communication. When I hear that a child isn’t “meeting communication goals,” I question the goals. When I hear that a child is not reliable in answering yes and no, I question the questions, the context, and the pressure. When I hear that a child threw their AAC device and it was taken away, I wonder what they’re throwing now, because frustration doesn’t disappear when the tool does. And when I hear that AAC “didn’t work” because a child explored, repeated, or played with words, I wonder what the expectation was. When literacy is dismissed as “not a life skill,” I question everything.

Children have stories – about pets and birthdays, about classroom adventures, about the people they love, about the hilarious and unexpected moments. Families overflow to tell these stories, eager to fill in the details. But when adults become the storytellers, the burden grows heavy, and the child becomes dependent on someone else to speak their life into the world.

Let’s make storytelling a goal. When something becomes a goal, we become accountable to teaching it, modeling it, and creating abundant opportunities to practice it. Children learn through play – through joy, through curiosity, through connection. So let’s keep it playful.

Because play is their work, and storytelling is their right.