People often wonder why I insist that young readers learn to visualize – aka pay attention to their mind’s eye – since the books they read already have pictures in them. While it is true that most children’s books already have pictures, that isn’t truly the point. Waiting to teach visualizing is like waiting until a child is 16 to teach him that a stop sign means stop. It is far more productive to have plenty of time to practice and reinforce an idea so instruction should begin well before a child gets behind the wheel of a car or in the case of visualizing well before the books they are reading no longer have pictures.
Picture books are wonderful supports for children who are learning to visualize. As an adult, I can read the story aloud without showing the pictures. Then after my child and I have discussed what we see in our mind’s eye, I can show them what the illustrator drew. Their picture may or may not match the illustrator’s picture and the best part is that is okay. As long as the picture you create in your mind’s eye matches the detail in the story, your picture – or comic strip or movie – is just fine. In fact it is more than fine, it is perfect.
What if your child has a hard time creating a picture. Well, read the page of the story again. Talk about the details. Maybe show them a small piece of the picture to help get them started. If your child is reading alone, they will likely naturally look at the picture first. This also isn’t a problem because more often than not they will use this as a springboard to creating a more vivid picture in their minds. In fact, that is the point of picture books having pictures. The pictures are supports for the reader.
Maybe after reading all this you still can’t bring yourself to using picture books to teach visualizing. That’s okay because to be honest, that isn’t the type of book I start with when I teach visualizing. Most people assume that it is my choice since that is the type of book I use for every other comprehension strategy whether the child is five or fifteen. This just simply isn’t the case this time. In our house we start with poetry.
Yes, you read that right, poetry. We especially like to use poems by Jack Prelutsky and Shel Silverstein. Why? Several reasons.
1. Poems are short.
2. Poems are typically filled with imagery.
3. Kids love the ridiculousness that are the ideas presented by many children’s poetry poets like the ones listed above.
4. Poems usually leave more room for interpretation so there is less pressure to be “right.”
5. Poetry for kids often has a small bit of a picture but not so much that even if the child is reading it himself he can’t add a great deal to it.
Once we have used poetry for a week or two, we do move on to using picture books. This transition is an easy one because we have already done the hard work of learning to pay attention to our mind’s eye. Our brains are ready, synapses are connected and we are primed to move on to something just one step more difficult – the picture book. That is the point when I use the strategies I talked about in the beginning. I will read the book without sharing the picture until my children have had a chance to create their own pictures. As time goes on, I start turning the book around and showing them part of the picture and we use that piece and our brains to create a full robust image. Eventually, we can read a book and share the pictures completely because the kids have become so comfortable visualizing that they are doing it despite the pictures that are provided. In fact, some of our most fun visualizing conversations come from how our picture and the picture drawn by the illustrator are the same or different.
As parents we have the chance to set our kids up for simple wins by teaching them things early and often. The meaning of stop signs is one such win. It makes teaching them to drive easier. Visualizing while the books they are reading or are being read to them still have pictures is another. It sets them up for success for that leap to chapter books. So, what are you waiting for?
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