Educating children is a goal for every parent and teacher. Being able to bring content, and real life skills to kids is very easy, however, helping them understand the lessons at hand is harder than most would think. However, wonderful illustrations in the books we provide for our youth can help them progress those skills. There are a few ways a simple picture can bring a very broad topic down to a very narrow, easily applied idea.
The biggest obstacle when trying to educate a child is trying to break down a topic into understandable material. As adults, we understand the definitions and how to conduct ourselves properly. When trying to teach a subject such as sharing, great illustrations of children sharing is a great way to explain to the audience, how to share. While it may seem odd, seeing kids their age, doing these actions, it can help them relate more to the story. Also, the pictures provide points where the educator can ask the children what they see, or tell them what is going on. Having these books are a valuable asset to classrooms and homes all over the world, as they are unique tools which can give child a pictorial representation of the lesson that is being taught.
The largest advantage of illustrated children’s books is the fact the artist will focus on specific points throughout the text to help the audience gain the most from the text. Even if a child is unable to read, they can still understand what is going on in the picture. Therefore, these books are great at bridging gaps that may occur in a classroom setting.
When there are hard to grasp concepts like honesty, reliability, and even preventing bullying; a picture accompanying the text will show how to model their actions children. Kids do not want to be lectured by an adult; they are the rule enforcers, therefore, boring. If another kid their age is telling them to do something, it must be fun! Using this mindset to its full advantage, authors and artists alike make characters come to life to help the targeted audience to become more successful, mannerly, citizens.
Keeps Reading Fun
Children tend to get bored with tasks very quickly if it is the same thing over and over. Having interactive illustration on one page and text opposite to it, helps to keep kids entertained. Reading may be a hard topic for many children, so having a picture will help them with harder to work out words. What adults know as “context clues” they see as a picture with a lot going on. As they breakdown the picture, the lesson will start to click as to what the text was saying. As they do this more successfully, their self-esteem will increase, and they will read more.
Knowing how to utilise the tools available can dramatically improve the learning process for children. Educators and parents need to be aware that there is always more that they can do when it comes to educating their children. No one is too old for a picture book; they teach valuable lessons and provide a mental break when reading long pages of text. This is proven in school textbooks; there are thousands of graphs, models, and illustrations in the pages. This is because our brain is multifaceted, we learn in many different ways, the job of illustrators is finding a way to make the message stick with us.
