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How picture books help children to develop literacy skills

Do you remember the picture books that first brought you joy? The ones that were read to you before you could read, or the ones that sparked your imagination for the first time? When you think about these stories what do you see?

For most of us, we might see our favorite characters or the enchanting setting of our childhood books. We see the illustrations brought to life through our memories.

Picture books bring tremendous benefits to children who are in the early stages of developing their reading skills. Illustrations shown alongside text offer invaluable tools to help children build understanding, fluency, vocabulary and other foundational literacy skills. The imagery in a picture book brings the pages to life, serving as a visual roadmap for the story.

Here are five important benefits picture books bring to children who are learning to read.

Phonological awareness

As children begin to speak and build sentences, they learn to recognize sounds and patterns within spoken language. This is known as phonological awareness and serves as the foundation for learning to read. The rhythmic cadence of many picture books help children develop and practice phonological awareness. Children may start by repeating passages of their favorite picture books, then go on to make up their own similar rhymes or stories.

At a most basic level, picture books with text help children understand that words convey meaning—connecting the pictures in the book with the words on the page. Children will check pictures on the page for background knowledge or contextual clues for vocabulary development. The Beautiful Me Collection uses images to learn positive attributes.

You can ask a child, “Can you show me what the boy is doing on this page?” or “What letter does the word Kind start with?

Social Emotional Development

The subject matter in picture books can introduce social cues and cultural differences that encourage social - emotional development. Books that model social behaviors help hone social language skills and reinforce positive behavior.

Interest and Intrigue

When children enjoy particular books or stories, they may ask to read the same book again and again. This is a good sign that this book sparks interest and intrigue for a young reader. Let children choose the stories they love, read them often, and offer options to explore new books as well.

Sequencing Skills

Visual aids and illustrations remind the reader what happened throughout the story and support their ability to confidently retell the key events. As children hone their sequencing skills, let them look at the pictures to remind them what happened in the story. If they guess, and guess incorrectly, then use it as an opportunity to re-read the passage. This offers a chance to do an additional check for understanding.

Comprehension

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There’s a lot to learn on the road to becoming a skilled reader. Along with sequencing and summarizing, there are many other essential skills kids must master in order to comprehend the text they read. Some of those skills include; sentence construction, problem solving, comparing and contrasting, drawing conclusions, inferring, and more.

Books rich with illustrations and photos offer many benefits to help enhance reading comprehension. Here are just a few of those benefits.

Contextual Cues

Pictures provide visual clues to help us discover more about the narrative.
Pictures show expressions, unwritten details, setting, and context that help us compare and contrast. These details allow us to analyze more complex details of character development.
Illustrations can provide important background knowledge and offer contextual cues based on what’s happening in the story. This helps us “read between the lines” to find meaning that may not be explicitly stated in the text.