We often hear that children have strong imaginations. Scientifically that is incorrect. Imagination is a part of our cognitive development that generally begins at 3-5. Plus, it is highly influenced by our sensory information.

What a child sees, hears, or experiences helps build their imagination. This further leads to the development of building blocks of memory, intelligence, and perception (the ability to answer their own questions or correlate something new with previous experience).

This is why children’s classrooms are always painted with vibrant colors and pictures. The reason is that their books have less long format texts and more visual representation.

It is the adults who have a strong imagination to visualize the scene in their head upon only reading a few black-and-white texts. Give that to a child, and they will be easily repelled.

Therefore, if you want your child to have a good reading habit, you must start building it with the help of beautifully illustrated books.

How Illustrated Books Help Children To Understand The Story

Reading any story is an immersive experience! It is not just about understanding the story as a bystander but trying to experience every emotion of the characters and set the scene.

For an adult, reading something like:

“The flush of summer green carpeted the meadow, with white and yellow wildflowers swaying in the lazy wind. The sound of the babbling brook at the foot of the mountain was serene.”

It will make sense since they should be able to imagine the exact scene. However, a child yet to experience their first mountain shouldn’t be able to translate the complex text into their imagination.

This is why the visual representation of everything plays an important role at an early age.

Giving Faces To Characters Prevents Confusion

A child is yet to see and experience a lot in their life. Plus, for their simple mind, everything has a face. They like to visualize everything in order to understand. Illustration in children’s books allows the writer to visualize literally everything.

Let’s take an example of this amazing children’s tale of “The Flu.” The story is about a boy fighting the evil flu germs to regain his physical strength. Yes, one can simply narrate the story; however, it is the genius of the illustrator who also decided to give faces to the different germs.

This allowed the children to see the menacing face of the germs and that keeping oneself right to keep them away is important.

Expressing Emotions Through Illustrations

Since they are still developing, children's EQ (Emotional Quotient) is much less than that of adults. This means simple words won’t suffice for them to understand the characters' feelings. However, their visual comprehension will develop faster. Thus, a child will understand a smile or a frown.

This is why illustrations play a major role in making the child understand the characters' emotions. Without this, they wouldn’t feel the relatability or the kinship with a character who is of the same age as them.

Understanding emotions is important for a child’s growth and detachment from their primary caregivers. When they go to school, it is their comprehension of emotion which will allow them to socialize, ask questions, understand others, and express themselves better.

It Keeps Them Hooked

Children are less likely to have good focus. Curious minds are always distracted, and although curiosity is good at times, sometimes they should learn to concentrate on one task at a time. Or else it can lead to problems in their academic life later when they are unable to retain attention in a classroom for too long.

The immersive illustrations in children’s literature books are a good way to keep a child focused on the still pictures. However, try not to engage your child too much in moving pictures because that can stimulate too much, leading to less understanding of the context.

Explore well-illustrated storybooks with life lessons with stories for your child.

Build Them A Library!

Start introducing your child into the whimsical land of unique character and beautiful friendship. These are some of the ways you can:

• Start storytelling by reading it aloud while they see it come to a picture with the illustrated visuals.
• You can enroll them in an online book club for kids. This will inspire them to read more when they find others of the same age doing so,
• Read your own book alongside them to inspire them more.