Exploring Young Children’s Use of Visual Information in a Picture Book

• In Event: Roundtable Session 29
  In Roundtable Session: Examining Literacy Issues and Practices in Elementary School

Abstract

Using analysis of text, oral reading, and eye movements, this study examined how visual information in a picturebook affected third grade students’ reading of it. Students read either the original or the adapted version of Wolf’s Chicken Stew, which differed only with respect to the amount and placement of visual information in the story. Although there was variation across all the readers, results point to the important role of images in text processing and document children’s deliberate use of images. Students fixate on images that provide important information as well as focus on specific items in the images that are vital to comprehension. Additionally, content of images along with availability and placement of images on a page affected students’ reading.

Authors

• Poonam Arya, Wayne State University

• Karen M. Feathers, Wayne State University