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September 7, 2008

Don't Cover the Pictures!

by Julie Williams

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In their early delight with books, kids love to boast, "I can read that page! Look at me!”

It often turns out that something quite different is happening: they’re sneaking looks at the pictures to fill in words, jumping back and forth between text and illustration. To worried parents, this looks like cheating.

But primary reading teachers have some reassuring advice: relax! This is a normal, important, and useful stage in learning to read – and for emerging readers, parents should encourage it.

True, as they advance, young readers will need to learn to get meaning from text alone. But a wealth of research shows that this is a multilayered process for children. It’s a big jump. They’re moving from concrete, realistic images – like those brightly colored pictures – to abstract letter codes. When new readers peek at a picture in the midst of stumbling with a word, they’re not cheating. They’re using important “context clues” to check the meanings they aren’t sure about.

Think of the pictures as visual training wheels. As they move forward, children will need them less and less, and will be able to rely on “sounding out” and other ways of cracking the code of letters. Even so, “context” remains a very important tool for all fluent readers. When you come across a long word you don’t recognize, chances are you make sense of it by looking at where it falls in the sentence, and what the rest of the paragraph is saying. You’re doing, as an adult, what your child is doing with pictures – and it’s a solid, valuable skill.


9 Comments

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Other readers' comments on this article:

  1. Great information. Thanks.

    Posted by Beatriz on Oct 30, 2007 8:54 pm

  2. great

    Posted by cxw on Oct 31, 2007 9:22 pm

  3. Thanks so much for the helpful tips. I work in a daycare and when i read to my children they some times take the books from me so that they can look at them and they will read to me the pictures. This is some helpful information I can pass on to the parents.

    Posted by Nicole on Nov 3, 2007 12:30 pm

  4. I don't agree at all.  There is a stage when children enjoy flipping through books and making up their own text, but once they start to sound out letters, I find that if they jump to the picture, they stay there and make up the rest of the sentence or the paragraph.  Phonics is more work that guessing a word from a picture and if a child is ready they should do the work of sounding it out. I use the picture as a reward they get to see after they have actually read the page.  Only after they have done the work of reading will they feel proud. Of course, the child should be ready to read by willing to do the work and all children are ready at different ages and should not be forced.

    Posted by Anonymous on Nov 16, 2007 6:39 am

  5. Anonymous - Please stop covering up the pictures.  The research is very clear on this.  Reading involves a child using all possible clues --phonics, pictures, predictions.  Reading should not be work.  It should be pleasurable.    

    Posted by Early Childhood Educator on Dec 19, 2007 9:04 pm

  6. Great article, but I have a question.  What if the child guesses the whole sentence based on the picture?  My son's school sends home books that we read for homework that are really simple and repetitive, so a glance at the picture and he doesn't even have to look at the words.  For example "Sally rides a bike", "Johnny rides a scooter"...He knows from the picture exactly what it says, he just has to look at the first letter of the name to remember who it is lol.  I don't hide the pictures, but I sometimes feel like he's not getting any real practice reading.  

    Posted by Gina on Jan 8, 2008 12:12 am

  7. I LOVE THE TIPS THANKS

    Posted by RACHEL on Apr 7, 2008 7:48 pm

  8. YES, GOOD ARTICLE. MY DAUGHTER READS HER BOOK - THAT IS THE PICTURES AND TELLS THE STORY. AFTER I FINISH READING, SHE SAYS, "MOMMY NOW MY TURN." THEN SHE READS PAGE BY PAGE AND SOMEHOW - MOST OF THE TIME THE WAY SHE READS IT, AS IF SHE KNOWS HOW TO READ. BUT ACTUALLY SHE IS READING THE "PICTURES." THANKS FOR ALL THE TIPS.
     
    FANTASTIC WEBSITE

    Posted by RIZWANA on Jun 17, 2008 9:29 pm

  9. It all comes down to a ballance.  Use the pictures!  The kids love them and it keeps them interested.  If you question whether they know all of the words, have them read it backwards. This means go to the back of the book and start with the very last word on the page.  Go from there.   They think it is hilarious, and you can tell if they the individual words.  

    Posted by mary on Jun 19, 2008 11:16 am



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