WHEN you tell a story, you tell your child about the world and its demands, its realities and its delights. Stories use the narrative format because this is how children organise their experience. THE STORY sets the imaginative life in motion and the child identifies with the hero or heroine. The image of the hero or heroine becomes an inner construct of how the child sees him or herself. Stories nourish the soul and nurture the child's need to feel competent, capable and worthy. VIA THE STORY your child discovers an inner Self that is noble, brave and active, and is then able to see himself slaying the dragon, or she knows that she can captivate the Prince The magical twist, the positive outcome, allows the child to understand that challenges can be contained and managed without loss of identity, hurt or humiliation.