Get someone to sketch the emotions you portray through words for a better impact.
The benefits of reading are manyfold. Reading gives us knowledge, increases focus and vocabulary; teaches us to combine different elements to construct an entire picture. It sharpens our power of reasoning and makes us live a thousand lives before dying. Shun reading and you’ll live only for once in this mundane world.
But reading isn’t an inclination you’re born with. Neither do you develop reading habits overnight. Given there are some who read just to show off; to portray themselves as intellectuals and learned people. Certainly, they are not – according to Harper Lee (American novelist; writer of To Kill a Mockingbird; 1960) – the people who breathe to read. Look into their childhood and you’ll find their power to construct meaning from texts – a complex skill to coordinate multiple interrelated information sources started at their tender ages – invariably under the influence of someone older – who turned their fickle, noisy minds into well-orchestrated symphonies.
True Reading: A skill that You Build in your Child over the Tender Years
Reading, in its true sense, is about integrating pieces of varied information into a complete and concise structure, which starts developing in infancy. Guided the proper way, it builds the foundation of a lifelong learning and unending development. When you read stories to your child, it stimulates him or her, starting from the first few months of the child’s entry to the world. It creates the bond you have imagined and longed for right from the time the baby was in the womb.
Read stories to your baby even before his/her toddler phase begins. Your baby will enjoy
the cadence of your voice and in future, will associate books with you. You would pave the way towards developing his or her linguistic skills; teach how the vowels and consonants and the syllables shape his/he native language your child will be speaking in future. But more than that, it helps them develop a mind that’s intrigued to go deeper into the wonders of the world.
But what should you read to your child? That’s the million dollar question!
Story Books with Illustrations – The Golden Key to Open Up the Tender Minds
Stories depicted through pictures enhance organization of informational materials presented to children, enhancing their attention and comprehension. They provide cues to keep minds activated, forming far more intense; detailed and organized recall tracings in childen [Levin and Mayer, 1993; Gernsbacher, 1990]. So next time you go and buy your child a story book, see to it that the illustrations and their colors are distinct and bright. For picture-facilitation effects in literature for very young children (preschoolers) show greater mnemonic benefits than in school-going children. [Guttman, 1977; Furnham , 2002]. Children who are older than 54 months have been found to benefit from informative illustrations the most.
Want to be a Popular Children’s Storywriter? Illustrate your works.
Illustrations not only improve a child’s motivation and attention to the listening task he or she has been given but also truly attend to the picture content of a story book to facilitate a recall. That’s how popular authors are made; unless the children recall you through your works, your books won’t sell.
Children like something that appeals to their fantasies and senses. But they don’t have the patience to go through winding lines for the excitement they seek. Only catchy pictures and vibrant colors receive their attention. And that’s the job of an illustrator. An illustrator with a good understanding of how physical and facial reactions and expressions to sketch. An illustrator with a good understanding of colours that portray those the best.
