First Essay Draft

‘How is Visual Communication used for child development?’

This essay is going to explore the extent in which visual communication within children’s books can help with their development of understanding the world around them. Children are introduced to picture books even before the age of one therefore this essay will discuss just how effective these books are in terms of their development to understand and communicate their own visual language.

Visual literacy is a concept that children are instantly exposed to when presented with something such as a picture book; visual literacy is something you expect to make meaning from what is presented in front of you so it can be argued that picture books need to be incredibly informative and not just a pretty illustration. Children are drawn to pictures, colour and form therefore authors should take advantage of this to further their understanding of the visuals around them ‘it is essential that children learn the skills of looking, appreciating and interpreting visual material, including its design.’ Colour and form are extremely significant to a child’s development of visual literacy; it allows them to interact with objects and images around them- making sense of imagery vs. real life. 

Jean Piaget is one of the earliest known educational psychologists; he created the argument that children can only make sense of the world within limits of their developmental stage. Piaget did not agree that intelligence was a fixed attribute, he ‘regarded cognitive development as a process which occurs due to biological maturation and interaction with the environment.’ This argument states that children will only begin to become more aware of what’s around them, as they get older and start to develop, this is evident through the elaboration of picture books compared to story books.