I’ll be honest. I was never a huge fan of wordless picture books as a teacher and I’m not really sure why. Perhaps it was because I was too concerned with the “nuts and bolts” of teaching reading?
But now that I have a young child, I see the amazing benefits that a wordless book provides! “Using picture clues” is an important comprehension strategy that often gets overlooked in our quest to teach other, seemingly “more-important”, strategies. But it’s a great way for a young child to begin comprehending what he/she is seeing.
Wordless picture books are also a great way for children to begin understanding basic story structure. They can tell the story by describing the pictures and what is happening on each page. Afterwards, your child should be able to loosely describe what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the book (sequencing).
Finally, wordless picture books increase a child’s vocabulary by encouraging the use of words they might not otherwise use. They also promote creativity and imagination by allowing a child to “embellish” the story however he/she wants to!
by Bill Thomson
by Barbara Lehman
by Nancy Tafuri
by Barbara Lehman
by Barbara Lehman
by Tomie dePaola
by Jerry Pinkney
by Donald Crews
by Steve Jenkins
Wow! So true and such a great list of books! :)
What a great post! We have the Pancake book and my almost 4 year old loves to "read" it over and over. Such a good resource for their imagination! Love your blog!!
annie
moffattgirls.blogspot.com
It's so much fun to see where a child's imagination takes them when they become the narrator. Thanks for sharing your list–some of these are already on our bookshelf, and I'm going to check out the others.
These are great because they get the child to "tell" the story. My son really loved Trucks! I'll have to check out the others.
I love your site! Such great information! I highly recommend checking out the book “Wave” by Suzy Lee. It is my new favorite wordless book.
-Meredith
http://www.boycrazymom.com
“Carl the Dog” board books would be great to add to your list. Each book centers around themes many children are familiar with….preschool, park, birthdays, the home, Christmas… As a speech-language pathologist, I have used wordless books to take a sample of children’s language. Many children have difficulty with inference and prediction when it comes to reading comprehension. You are so right to encourage parents to begin these skills early on through the wordless books; because, some of us are stronger visual learners than we are auditory. “Seeing it” may help us learn how to hear or read it. Great ideas!
Jenae,
Great post! I am a mommy/speech-language pathologist. I was just talking with a co-worker today about using wordless picture books in therapy in order to develop narrative skills. I love the “Carl the Dog” books and “Goodnight Gorilla”, as well as David Wiesner’s wordless books (although his books are definitely higher level which I use with middle/high school students). I love this resource list! Thanks so much!
:) Katie@letsgrowspeech