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Picture Books and the Role of Parents Picture books allow children to interact with words and pictures, but their reasoning can be enhanced through shared parent-child reading. Picture books are most effective when parents read to their children because they assist the latter in developing social language through the support emanating from the pictures, the features of the text, and the joint attention between the parent and the child (Moerk 548). While reading aloud, the parents can sound out the words and relate them with the actions observed in the pictures, particularly the keywords that define significant aspects of language development. Parents can act out words resembling the characters in the book to reinforce the child’s comprehension of daily activities. For instance, in The Tiger, who Came to Tea, the words ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ are repeated continuously, with the pictures indicating the actions. In this case, the parents can emphasize these actions so that the child can identify these words with the actions and hence, utilize them effectively, differentiating what is eaten and drank. In addition, the texts in the children’s books are emphasized by the pictures, providing the children with the opportunity to utilize personal experiences and apply the knowledge practically, developing social language in the process (Rodriguez). Hence, parents can easily emphasize the actions shown in picture books to resemble the words, increasing language identification and use in real-life settings.
Picture books enhance emotions, allowing children to analyze how certain actions can affect others, furthering their social language and interactions. The art and context are reinforced by emotions, which the child can associate with how individuals feel or react to someone’s actions (Rodriguez). For instance, in The Tiger, who Came to Tea, the child can realize how one’s selfish actions can affect others through the sad emotions shown by the girl’s mother after she realized the tiger ate everything and left nothing for the father (Kerr). The pictures continuously depict sadness after the tiger leaves, despite them inviting him to share, he took advantage of the situation. Hence, the child can identify secondary themes and subplots not told from the pictures by reading the characters’ emotions and interactions. Combined with the parents’ illustrations and clarifications, the child can develop positive social behaviors to avoid causing harm to others. The picture books are effective in teaching social language and behavior by highlighting how people’s actions affect others.
Picture books allow children to grapple with symbolic reasoning, recognizing objects in the book as representing something in the real world. According to Strouse et al., parents should play a role in directing children regarding the symbolic nature of pictures and their references since most can have issues differentiating beyond the basic understanding of the pictures. By using the elements of children’s literature, such as animals having human-like characteristics, the parent must focus more on the symbolic aspect and use this opportunity to link the object to a real-world setting, which is possible with children’s books. Parents can take this chance to test the child’s symbolic reasoning ability or level by asking questions regarding the characters and what they believe it captures in the real world. Children’s literature gives parents the chance to support symbolic reasoning entertainingly, particularly by using animals with human-like characteristics and names that the child can easily remember. For instance, The Tale of Peter Rabbit utilizes a family of rabbits with names and additional human-like features such as talking and wearing clothes (Potter). This feature creates an interesting and exciting way of teaching children about various values while transferring the knowledge from the objects presented to a real-world setting. The parent can gain the child’s attention while reading aloud and utilizing animals as key references, which creates more interest than human characters (Strouse et al.). Hence, children’s literature supports symbolic reasoning, whereby parents can differentiate between objects and their real-world representation, reinforced by their concentration and association with animal characters.
Picture Books, Self-interpretation, and Imagination Picture books create room for conversation, whereby children can utilize self-interpretation and imagination to realize social behavior and language skills. According to Strouse et al., children’s literature contains fantasy elements that can encourage critical thinking in the right environment. Children can transfer the knowledge from animals matching human characteristics and apply the lessons in the real world, such as in The Tiger who came to Tea. Picture books can allow children to distinguish between fantasy and reality, such as the tiger mimicking human-like features but behaving badly just like wild animals. In addition, while the children’s literature highlights animals with human-like traits, they still capture the animal aspect, further giving children the ability to self-interpret while asking questions. For instance, in The Tale of Tom Kitten, while the plot presents them as a normal family, the author captures their animal side through references such as “Then she combed their tails and whiskers (this is Tom Kitten)”, which the child can immediately associate with their body, highlighting the differences (Potter). This feature and approach are adapted in these books to ensure the child can differentiate between fantasy and reality.
Picture books encourage children to make inferences regarding the events that might occur from their analysis of the various pictures. The numerous pictures and words pair to form expressions that the children can utilize when reading through the book (Rodriguez). An instance is Peter in The Tale of Peter Rabbit, whereby the picture showing Peter moving away from the rest of the family while the mother is giving instructions allows the child to make inferences about what will occur, which is Peter disobeying his mother’s orders due to the failure of being attentive (Potter). The pictures are further emphasized by the text showing his naughty and diverse behavior when compared with his siblings. Similar instances can be seen in The Tale of Tom Kitten, whereby the children’s behavior can immediately infer consequences from making an informed guess that losing their clothes or failing to maintain cleanliness would cause their mother to react (Potter). By focusing on visualized information, the children can recreate the scenarios in their heads in real-life scenarios, predicting some of the consequences that might result from their actions and most cases, referencing some of the events in the book. Children can develop social reasoning and behavior through self-imagination and critical thinking supported by the picture book’s communication through images.
Picture Books, Pragmatics, Vocabulary, Cognitive, and Language Development Picture books incorporate various techniques, such as using rhymes and rhythms that increase the reader’s comprehension. By playing around with language, the children have a higher chance of developing the needed vocabulary without the need to focus more on complex words. Children can gain knowledge from the rhymes and rhythms common to picture books and easily re enact situations in real life from their favorite characters during decision-making (Hintz and Tribunella 163). Rhythmic words increase brain development by allowing the children to differentiate meanings for words with similar pronunciations. Children can easily learn about the differences between animals from the sound they make while moving to other characteristics, such as their movement behavior in groups or solitude. For instance, in The Tale of Tom Kitten, students can identify some of the sounds made by ducks through the phrase “there was a pit pat paddle pat! and the three Puddle-Ducks came along the hard high road” (Potter), which they can differentiate with those made by rabbits through the phrase “After a time he began to wander about, going lippity-lippitynot very fast, and looking all around” (Potter). In addition, rhyming the words with the actions restricted to these animals is also an effective approach in children’s literature to increase comprehension. For instance, in The Tale of Tom Kitten, the name Mr. Drake Puddle Duck illustrates how he moves around in the water, which the children cannot confuse with the movements made by other animals since it is exclusively associated with the duck. From the phrases, children can differentiate various animals, which they can also apply in real-life situations when expounding their knowledge on the scientific aspects of these animals commonly utilized in their literature.
Picture books encourage readers to develop emotional intelligence by analyzing the themes and morals of the story. Picture books create fun characters that children can relate to developing social interaction skills and language development by asking questions such as what did Peter Rabbit do wrong, which directs their reaction to a similar phenomenon. A child’s behavior can be a combination between emotion and cognition, particularly during decision-making (Strouse et al.). In the identified books, the children can identify moral lessons from the character’s interactions, from Peter’s disobedience exposing him to danger to the tiger’s lack of manners and consideration affecting a household’s plans. Hence, children can develop a conscience by identifying the elicited emotions linked to these actions. For instance, Peter developed a fear after a run-in with the gardener and the mother exposed her worries about the tiger eating all the food without considering their plight. However, children also develop cognitive skills that can prevent similar situations in the future. For instance, in The Tiger, who came to Tea, children are taught proper planning skills when the family decides to buy a tiger tin for when he visits next (Kerr). A child identifies that regardless of the events, it is still good to share with others, which supports emotional intelligence and moral decision-making, while on the other hand, buying the tin allows cognitive development skills such as proper rationing and restrictions that would avoid losses. By highlighting the events through pictures, children can easily relate to the consequences of one’s actions by identifying the resultant emotions.
Picture books with illustrations often incorporate repetition, which allows the child to develop phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency. The child can easily recognize an object with a word if it is continuously repeated and illustrated in picture books (Strouse et al.). In The Tale of Peter Rabbit, words such as garden and cabbages are repeated and reinforced with an image, allowing the child to easily link the word with the picture when interacting in real-life settings. For instance, they would identify that potatoes, cabbages, French beans, and lettuces are grown in a garden because of the repetition within the story. The child can anticipate a word and in the process, develop comprehension and fluency, especially since it is presented interestingly through relatable characters. Picture books increase comprehension and fluency in words, meanings, and applications by allowing the children to collect information regarding various real life situations continuously linked with relatable images and illustrations.
Works Cited
Hintz, Carrie, and Eric L. Tribunella. Reading Childrens Literature: A Critical Introduction. Second Edition. Broadview P. 2019.
Kerr, Judith. “The Tiger Who came to Tea.” www.kestonprimary.org.uk/wpcontent/uploads/2020/5/English-The-Tiger-who Came-to-Tea.pdf. Accessed 27 July 2022.
Moerk, Ernst L. “Picture-book reading by mothers and young children and its impact upon language development.” Journal of Pragmatics, vol. 9, no. 4, 1985, pp. 547-566.
Potter, Beatrix. “The Tale Of Tom Kitten.” Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org/files/14837/14837 -h/14837-h.htm. Accessed 27 July 2022.
Rodrguez, M C. “The Interaction between Text and Image in Picturebooks: Analysis of Story Books Published in Spain today.” The International Journal of Visual Design, vol. 9, no. 3, 2015, pp. 1-14.
Strouse, Gabrielle A., et al. “The Role of Book Features in Young Children’s Transfer of Information from Picture Books to Real-World Contexts.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 9, 2018.
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