Story explorers! : exploring the visual potential of wordless picture books with young children

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation was to explore the visual potential of wordless picture books with five-year-old children who are at an emergent stage of reading. This study analyzed the children's oral responses and story interpretations evoked by six wordless picture books on the basis of the hypothesis that children can narrate stories from a very young age by using their prior knowledge, personal experiences and literacy-related background together with their exposure to learning environments and resources. Six children participated in the study. The findings demonstrated that apart from their literacy-related background, an interplay of factors are involved when children try to make meaning out of visual texts. This study has shown that wordless picture books are worth exploring with children since, when given the opportunity to do so, children are able to give valid responses, interpret, infer and engage actively with visual texts as well as narrate coherent stories. The results suggest that wordless picture books can be a potential resource to use with children since they support their emergent reading development.