Second Essay Draft

To what extent do picture and storybooks have an effect on children's visual development?

This essay is going to discuss and explore the extent in which picture and storybooks have an effect on a child’s visual development. The first books children are usually exposed to have little or no words in them and rely solely on imagery, many are filled with elaborative illustrations, pop ups or touch and feel aspects to allow the child to heavily interact with the book in front of them. Exposing children to stories at a young age, even if they are not yet at a reading stage, allows their visual development to expand through creative and imaginative ways. However, can parents and teachers rely just on these alone in order for children to develop a visual understanding of the world around them and interact with others and their surroundings?

David Kolb published something which changed the way people looked at the way we learnt, in 1984 Kolb published his learning style model, he wanted to learn more and ‘began a lifetime of inquiry into experimental learning’ (Kolb, D, 2015). The learning theory works on two levels, a four-stage cycle of learning and four separate learning styles. Much of his theory is concerned with the learner’s internal cognitive processes. The learning styles are: concrete experience; reflective observations; abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation. In terms of which learning style may apply best to children reading picture and story books, it would be active experimentation as it is when the learner applies themselves to the world around them to see what results they get. These learning theories have been a heavy influence on research and ‘since 2002 experiential learning theory research has more than quadrupled’ (Kolb, D, 2015), it is clear that you can apply these theories on to children’s visual development. Kolb says that you cannot perform both variables on a single axis at the same time, therefore cannot both think and feel at the same time, this is reflective of a child’s visual development as at a young age they will naturally find it difficult to balance more than one emotion as they don’t fully understand how they are feeling. This means it could be argued that picture and storybooks are, in effect, useless as children are essentially looking at a collection of images, maybe a few words and not fully understanding why there are images in front of them and they cannot put together a story from it.  Kolb’s ‘intention in using the term ‘experiential’ was to describe a theoretical perspective on the individual leaning process that applied in all situations and arenas of life’ (Kolb, D, 2015), it can ‘aid in overcoming the difficulties of learning from experience.’ (Kolb, D, 2015) 

In response to Kolb’s findings, Peter Honey and Alan Mumford developed new branches of learning styles, activist, theorist, pragmatist and reflector. These learning approaches are in a much simpler form therefore the preferred way to teach and understand how children learn. These are recommended so that individuals can understand their own learning style and to seek out opportunities to learn using their style, Honey and Mumford put together a questionnaire that can be completed by any individual in order for them to work out their best-suited learning style. These learning styles seem to be preferred as they can be adaptable when circumstances change, rather than just being fixed personality characteristics. Their Learning Styles Questionnaire is something self-developed and is definitely different to Klob’s Learning Style Inventory as it allows an individual to seek out their learning independently rather than a direct question being asked. 

The most common learning styles are taught to teachers; therefore it is familiar to many children and is based on Neuro-Linguistic Programming. They are made up of describing learners as Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic and they are decided to your learning style based on how you take in information. The use of picture books in a learning school environment will enhance a child’s visual learning, as children concentrate closely on the images attention to detail and will remain observant in order to enhance their development. Reading will also touch upon both auditory and kinaesthetic, as often a child is read to and they are expected to listen through verbal teaching and interact with the book if they can use their imagination to become collaborative and involved with its story.

Moreover, the New York Times in recent years published an article titled ‘Picture Books No Longer A Staple For Children’, arguing that children are too young for these kind of books and they don’t provide any means for visual learning or development. Bosman writes that ‘picture books are so unpopular these days’ (Bosman, J, 2010) and many employees of book stores ‘watch them languish and then returning them to the publisher.’ (Bosman, J, 2010) The article briefly seems to fawn over elaborate picture books but then goes on to say, ‘The picture book, a mainstay of children’s literature with its lavish illustrations, cheerful colours and large print wrapped in a glossy jacket, has been fading.’ (Bosman, J, 2010) Bosman argues that this is due to at the time of writing the article an economic downfall but also a point that still stands in 2018, that parents don’t see the attraction and appeal of purchasing isn’t there anymore as they want to push their children to begin reading and understanding at a much younger age, this is due to pressures of wanting the child to do well and become academic instantly. This is also reflected in the publishing of picture books, as publishers have noticed this decline and the production of these style books are a lot less popular and in demand. It is clear a lot of parents don’t see a benefit of picture and storybooks for their child’s development and are becoming more willing to place chapter books in front of them and the fact that Young Adult Fiction has been ‘the universally growing genre’ (Bosman, J, 2010), has had a huge influence as more time and production is being put into this genre rather than the early years. The article interviews a stay at home mother, Amanda Gignac encouraged her son to start reading chapter books at the age of 4. Two years later and she says he still regularly tries to pick up picture books and says, ‘He would still read picture books now if we let him, because he doesn’t want to work to read’ (Gignac, A, 2010).  The article does not seem to touch upon the benefits of picture books in terms of a child’s creative visual development and how it may have a positive impact on how they look at the world around them and relate images found in picture books to real life and begin to understand aspects like objects and nature. 

In addition to the publishing of the New York Times article, there was a quick response to argue the positive uses of picture and storybooks for the development of a child and why they are still so incredibly important to use for their learning. The article, ‘How Picture Books Play A Role In A Child’s Development’, written by Lori Calabrese an award winning children’s author. She instantly begins to disagree with the argument that picture books do not help with a child’s development. Calabrese straight away criticises pushy parents who wish for their child to instantly get into chapter books, saying ‘they don’t realise that the insensitive coaching can be counterproductive and they’re missing out on an important genre, critical in the role of a child’s development- picture books.’ (Calabrese, L, 2010) The article then goes onto explaining many reasons to why picture books are still so important for a child’s development and a lot of them do focus on the child’s creativity and imagination. One key point made relates to the illustrations found within picture books and how they allow the story to be analysed, the reason points out that ‘when children are having difficulty, the illustrations can help them figure out the meaning of what they are reading.’ (Calabrese, L, 2010) This argues against Kolb’s theory that you cannot perform more than one learning styles on the cycle so you cannot think and feel at the same time. Calabrese is arguing that picture books do help children perform two feelings at once and illustrations help them figure out what is going on. Another pointer is that ‘children love art’ (Calabrese, L, 2010) and no matter what it is on the cover that is drawing a child to a book, it should be encouraged, as they want to read and that should always be encouraged to further develop a child’s visual learning and understanding. The article touches upon children’s imagination, something which is key for their visual development as again it’s a means of interaction, the point of children’s books being multi-sensory is a positive as it ‘aids a child’s growing mind and stimulates their imagination’ the children interact with the story as ‘they see the illustrations and smell and touch the pages.’ (Calabrese, L, 2010) Accompanying this point, the final point to mention in this article and possibly the most important is that picture and storybooks are incredibly fun for a child and this is key to making a reading experience fun and enjoyable. Calabrese says ‘reading should never be a chore. If you make reading a chore early on in a child’s development, they might grow to resent reading’, (Calabrese, L, 2010) it has always been clear that reading is such a big factor to a child’s development in every aspect of their learning, whether that be creative or academic. Reading picture books exposes children to their surroundings and are often written realistically so they can take these stories and translate them to their everyday life, meaning their visual development can flourish through reading picture books. 

In addition to this, another text that inexplicitly supports the use of picture books is John Berger, Ways Of Seeing. This book does not directly discuss picture and storybooks, but more upon relating to what we see to the world around us. Berger immediately says ‘seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognises before it can speak’ (Berger, J, 1972), words are used to try to explain the environment that surrounds and there is always going to be a continuous gap between the words used and the sights that are seen. This statement relates to Calabrese’s point that the illustrations and images found in a picture book this will help the child understand its meaning, as the child will always recognise what they see before what they can read. This is further reinforced through Berger explaining that ‘images were first made to configure up the appearance of something that was absent’ (Berger, J, 1972), seeing images first, allows a child to establish their place and the book explains that blending words and pictures, can illustrate a vibrant environment. This means children can take what they see in front of them and create something imaginative and exciting in order to piece together a story. Berger encourages this thinking as ‘the more imaginative the work, the more profoundly it allows us to share the artist's experience of the visible.’ (Berger, J, 1972) This statement goes against Bosman’s article that children are better being taught to read a chapter book much earlier on for learning benefits, but that the reading of a picture book first and foremost expands on their visual learning. Ultimately this will allow a child’s imagination to piece together their surroundings and form a better understanding of the world around them.

Whilst Berger insists that the child ‘recognises before it can speak’ (Berger, J, 1972), it can also be argued that the child is clueless to its surroundings until it understands the concepts of life and morality. In ‘A Child’s World’ a Chanel 4 documentary series, it ‘charts the key developments that mark they way on every human being’s incredible journey to becoming a fully-fledged independent person.’ (A Child’s World, Life and Times, 2001)The documentary has no clear mention of the use of picture books, but does touch upon a child’s visual development as it looks at their understanding of life itself. It can be argued this episode will not see picture and storybooks as something that can encourage key points in a child’s visual development as ‘at 18 months a child cannot separate what is living vs. what isn’t.’ (A Child’s World, Life and Times, 2001)Therefore, the theories that picture books enhance their imagination and allow them to understand a storyline may not be all that clear as they can become confused as to what is real and what isn’t. It is only at the age of 3 that ‘they begin to grasp an understanding between living and none living’, (A Child’s World, Life and Times, 2001)the programme shows a group of 3 year olds being shown a collection of 8 objects, they were asked to examine them and separate them into living and none living. Most of them failed and struggled to grasp the understanding especially of representation and the real thing, as most thought the toy doll was living. 

To conclude, there are arguments with both positive and negative aspects of the use of picture and storybooks to influence a child’s visual development, it can become incredibly complex however, I think the points made have all strong statements to back them up. Within the article written by Calabrese she strongly argues that picture and storybooks play an important role in a child’s development, with 10 strong pointers to back her argument. Her points are backed through Berger’s Way’s Of Seeing, and how pictures and illustrations allow a child to use their imagination in order to develop their visual understanding of the world around them. These points are disregarded through Bosman’s article as its argued that picture books just prolong a child’s development and they should be exposed to chapter books at a much younger age. This is further reinforced in A Child’s World, as children do not understand the difference between living and none living, therefore the use of picture books only blur the lines between their developing of what exists within a book and what exists in real life.