Wordless Picture Books and What They Have to Offer Your Child
How they can help support early literacy skills
It is fairly common to see children read books with illustrations and text. I have plenty of picture books that I love to read to my daughter as well. But what about picture books without words?
Wordless books are just that, books without any words. Instead, they tell a story through illustrations. Some examples of wordless books are picture books, scrapbooks, as well as photo albums. They can be enjoyed by young readers, as well as older readers too.
Wordless books are great tools to support early literacy skills in children. My toddler is still learning how to verbalize with language, and so right now she is using non-verbal communication to express herself. Picture books, along with photo albums support her verbal and non-verbal communication.
Give a child a picture book filled solely with rich illustrations and as well as examining its pages, you invite her to co-author the story — and that is kind of exciting! -Scholastic
Picture books with and without text have so much to offer children and are rich with learning opportunities. Children tend to gravitate towards colorful illustrations that spark creativity,
Having wordless books supports building language skills as they are interactive and invite dialogue. They support the development for early language skills through storytelling, book orientation and navigation as well as social and emotional skills. Here are some examples of wordless picture books.
A wordless book is like a blank canvas in which each child is able to write their own story.
How Can You Use Wordless Books to Support Early Literacy Skills?
1) Let them create their own story:
I love to read to my toddler, but sometimes I leave her alone to explore the books on her own. I notice that as she flips the pages, she starts talking to herself and makes up her own language. She points at the page and giggles. Even though she’s not reading the words of the book, she’s creating her own story from the book. Similarly, older children who are learning to read can take turns creating their own story from the illustrations.
2) Model storytelling
I mentioned in my previous article how essential modeling is when it comes to teaching young children. Wordless picture books invite children to create their own stories, but also adults too.
I have taken books with texts that were a bit too long, and created my own stories for my students using the illustrations. Storytelling is a great resource to use to support early literacy skills. It fosters imagination skills, language and development, and creates a form of connection to the story at hand.
Your tone of voice and your pace both play a role in how you tell the story. Creating my own stories for children taught me to slow down, take pauses in between sentences and watch for a response from my audience.
2) Picture Walk
Similar to storytelling, a picture walk is another great way to build language skills with wordless books. You talk about the pictures that you see on the page and ask your child open ended questions like, “What do you see?”, which invites dialogue with your child.
Even though my toddler is still not able to respond to me, she hears what I am saying to her. I am involving her in the reading process by doing a picture walk. Oral language is closely connected to reading and writing skills.
3) Learning how stories are constructed:
Even though they don’t have any words, wordless books show children how stories are constructed. They teach them how to use books which will help them in the future when they are actually reading words. You read them from the orientation left to right.
Pointing out to them the different parts of the books, such as the cover, the author, or illustrator, will help them with book orientation but also print awareness. Also, following a story shows children the structure of a story, and they learn about sequencing.
4) Comprehension skills
You can use wordless picture books to help them identify objects, characters, actions and narrations while using visual and non-visual cues. You can also practice comprehension skills. Some example questions would be: “what was your favorite part of the story? Who were the characters in the story?
You can also relate it to a prior experience by asking questions such as “Do you remember a time when you felt this way?” or “How do you think he was feeling, why or why not?” This also supports social and emotional skills as you are cultivating empathy and regard for other people.
Wordless picture books are also a great way for children who have learning difficulties and second language learners. For example, if a child is still learning to verbalize, you can use sign language or non-verbal communication like pointing to a page at something and seeing how they will react. You can use sign language to point to the different parts of the book and help your child make connections to the visual images.
They also support dual and multi language learners. As a multilingual myself, I enjoyed sharing stories in many languages for my toddler while looking at the book. Since there is no text, there is no right or wrong way of decoding the book with language.
A Note About Individualized Photo Albums
The next best thing to video chatting with family near and far is to provide photos of loved ones for children. I received a personalized photo album and have noticed that my daughter really responds to it as a wordless picture book. I love having photos of my toddlers grandparents and godparents available to her, and that she can learn to use as a book independently.
There are many personalized photo albums options out there. You can make your own through an app on your phone, scrapbooking, but there are plenty available online to purchase too.
I purchased a personalized photo album recently made out of french fabric by another entrepreneur Émeline, who is the creator of the company SewFrancisco. I would highly recommend SewFrancisco if you are interested in purchasing personalized fabric items, like photo albums, for yourself, your child or as a gift for loved ones. Émeline is detail-oriented and it is evident that she applies a lot of work and love in her orders. The ordering process was simple and straightforward, and she is very responsive when it comes to questions or inquiries about your order. She is also a mother of a little girl as well!
I’m always interested in external resources that help support my child’s learning journey that I can recommend to other parents too. Feel free to contact me if you to collaborate!
If you are interested in further early literacy tips you can follow me on IG @mama4literacy. I will post a limited time offer discount code to SewFrancisco shop on my Instagram page.
