I recently started a new job doing at home care for special needs children. At the home I went to last week I worked with a 9-year-old girl who has different needs. We spent about 30 minutes reading books. I would read the books to her, but she would quickly become disinterested and wanted to read the next book. As I kept picking up new books I started to realize that it wasn’t the story itself she liked, but the pictures. She would look at every picture on every page, and then quickly turn to the next page. Once I realized this, I started turning the pages and making up a story from the pictures, which seemed to interest her more. This made me wonder if the pictures could tell a completely different story to a child.
I started to think back to another child I used to babysit. He was able to read almost two grade levels above the one he was at. He would insist on reading me different stories, but would never read the words. He would make up stories from the pictures, which happened to be very different than the story itself. I came to the conclusion that children enjoy perceiving stories they way they want to perceive them. This would explain why many of the kids enjoyed creating their own stories from the pictures because it allowed them to decide what happened in the book. The pictures can tell a completely different story than the story itself intends to tell.
I have experienced the exact same thing with kids that I have babysat. The kids turn the pages before I even finish reading the words. I have realized that it is not the story that attracts the children to the books it is the illustrations. I have two younger cousins that always want me to read to them. Every time I pick up a book they are only interested in it for a few minutes and then they run to go find a new one. While reading your post I was thinking about how when we get older books don’t even have illustrations in them. I thought maybe if more books showed illustrations then older kids would be more attracted to the idea of reading. Or maybe if older kids thought that they had more opportunity to make up their own story like they do in children’s book then they would show more interest in books.
ReplyDeleteI agree with this as well. I believe that in a picture book, the pictures can tell a completely different story than what they text states. Some young children are interested in the pictures moreso than the actually story line and text. I believe that children enjoy looking at the picture books and believe that these pictures tell the entire story. I have a younger cousin that I read to and she's five years old. She loves when stories are read to her! But, she loves to tell the story in her own words. I have noticed that when she tells the story, she points to the pictures, not to the text. She will make up her own fairy tale story based on just the pictures. This relates to your post. I think that most children may have this same desire to make up stories of their own or hear a story just based on the pictures. I know when I point to a picture then my cousin and I can both say something about the picture, making our own story based on the pictures as we read the entire book. This relates to our class dicussion that everyone reads books differently. Some people will interpret a picture completely different than the person sitting next to them; it all depends on one experiences and the perspectives. One story may have thousands of different meanings, just like picture books.
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