Use your words

Wordless picture books are a valuable tool to help children develop the range of skills and knowledge they need before they can learn to read (Every Child Ready to Read 2nd edition, ECRR2). Lysaker & Hopper (2015) believe that decoding print is being overemphasized, and needs to be seen as an extension of the meaning making strategies that children develop through their interactions with picture books and wordless books.  As ECRR2 states, “although letter knowledge, phonological awareness, and concepts of print are initially important, and should be taught .  . . the critical skills are vocabulary, comprehension, and background knowledge”.  When parents and children interact and tell stories with wordless picture books, they build these crucial unconstrained skills, skills that continue to develelop over a lifetime. Research shows that with wordless picture books, both children and adults use more complex and varied vocabulary (Emma Eccles Jones College of Education, 2011).  Reading open-ended wordless books encourages talking, questions, and playful enjoyment of books.

 

 Wordless picture books:

• build speaking and communication skills

• build listening and comprehension skills

• build vocabulary through the use of varied complex language 

• build narrative skills by allowing children to become the storytellers

• encourage creativity and play

• build visual literacy and critical thinking skills by encouraging children to look closely, infer, and articulate what they see.

• can be read by English Language Learners no matter what language is spoken.