Ok so I know today's agenda is really supposed to be about comics/graphic novels...but I have to go with another visual medium. Children's picture books!
My son is seven and has multiple learning disabilities. His main classification is communication impairment. To put it simply my son often has a hard time understanding things that are said to him and he has a hard time saying what he wants. It is all in how is brain is wired. Often times things just don't connect for him. So we often get asked the same question over and over and over again. Not just in the normal child questioning way but in his way of trying to understand things.
Because of his disabilities he is not ready for chapter books or overly wordy books. But picture books are just perfect for him. He gets a story and the pictures help him to understand what is going on. Through the pictures he suddenly sees what is happening and he understands it better.
I've always been a fan of children's books but ever since I started reading them to my son I've grown to love them even more. I LOVE looking at the artwork. I love when the artwork is so good that you don't even have to read the words to know what is happening. Its wonderful when I can had a book to my son and wants to look through it and can tell me what is happening. Whenever I read a book to him I always ask what was his favorite picture.
I just read a book last night (review to come shortly) called Abigail and Her Pet Zombie by Marie F. Crow. I haven't read it to my son yet but am so looking forward to reading it to him tonight. Anyway, the pictures in this book were AMAZING!!! I mean I just could not stop staring at them. That's the kind of picture books I love. The ones that make you keep going back and back again to look at them.
3 comments:
I work with children and I LOVE reading picture books to them (admittedly this doesn't happen very often, because I don't have very many hours spare in my day). Some of my best memories from when I was very small are of my parents reading picture books to me. This is a completely lovely tribute to children's books, and I'm so glad that picture books help your son to understand the story.
Melissa, I'm an elementary educator and I completely understand how your son isn't ready to read a chapter book. Going from reading a children's book to a chapter book is a huge step for children no matter what their age is. I love that the children's books are starting to become more interesting and colorful reads for young readers. I also like the step into reading books where new readers can start to build their reading stamina and fluency up by reading smaller chapter books.
Duh! I wasn't thinking in terms of children's picture books as visual expression, but it obviously is. I love children's picture books and have always had quite a collection. Nice post!
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