Picture Books Encourage Children

Good readers are often excellent divergent thinkers. A divergent thinker is flexible, fluent, original and can elaborate. All these skills are critical for reading. Picture books encourage a child to increase the flexibility of their thinking by letting a child take contextual cues from the pictures and fill in critical elements of a story. Picture books also encourage fluency by enticing a child to read over and over again. The process of repetition actually encourages deep learning and understanding. Picture books can also develop original thinking in young readers by allowing them to fill in the story and make connections between pictures and words. Young readers can even develop their own story lines based on the pictures alone. Picture books can also develop the skill of elaboration in young readers. Elaboration is critical to understanding and comprehending a story. If a child can elaborate on a story then that means that they effectively digested the story. Picture books encourage divergent thinking.