Linguistic and cognitive developments through reading comics
Many parents and educators consider comics to be a less desirable use of our children’s time. Often maligned as trashy or a waste of brain space, in truth, reading comics benefits our children in many ways – some of which are related to heightened reading ability and comprehension.
Comics is a visual art consisting of picture grids that show a story expressed in the order of the pictures and thus sometimes referred to as “sequential art.”
It plays an important role in the relationship between pure visual art and written literature and can be said to be the oldest writing communication tool for human beings. If you look at ancient artifacts from China and Egypt, you can see how this was true.
While we do not suggest your children ONLY read comics – and of course, only age-appropriate content, using your kids’ innate attraction to comics can be a very “sneaky” way to help your child level up their Chinese (and English) reading abilities.
Let’s delve into how sequential art works in our brains (and thus the brains of our children).
The relationship between comic strips and brain development
The relationship between pictures and films and words
Comic strip and language development
How Comics Increases Children’s Reading Abilities
1. Interesting and easy reading can lead to more serious, formal reading
While it may seem unbearably far off, complex books and plotlines are not usually an easy entry-point for children as they are still developing their reading skills. Since comics contain fun pictures and a lot fewer Chinese characters, it is a lot less intimidating for your children to pick up and try.
Once your child sees that the stories are funny, exciting, and interesting, they will want to read more. The more they read Chinese characters (and use the pictures to guess characters for words they can’t recognize), the more their Chinese will improve – sometimes high enough to read more advanced Chinese books.
2. Children who read a lot of comic books read in higher volumes
Truthfully, it doesn’t much matter what your children are reading as long as they are reading. Regardless of format, the more your children read and level-up their character recognition, the more they will read in general.
Reading books become habit and if it truly bothers you, you can always slowly substitute comics with books that have fewer pictures and more text. There are many Chinese bridge books that have a combination of pictures with longer chapters that can gradually replace comics.
3. Reading comics can improve the overall interest of reading
Just like you probably become more interested in doing things if you like the subject, graphic novels show your child that there are exciting worlds in books. These early experiences with complicated storylines, imagination, and visualizing what the text represents will help your kids make the intellectual leap that reading in general is fun.
4. Building confidence and deepen interest
Reading graphic novels can improve children’s confidence in autonomous reading, boost self-esteem, and deepen interest in subjects and reading in general.
As we mentioned earlier, because comics include both pictures and text, if your child cannot read every single character, they still can figure out the gist of the story – and perhaps guess the Chinese characters – based on the illustrations alone. The more they practice and succeed at reading these “easier” books, the more they will believe that they can read more complicated books.
Competence breeds confidence.
5. Build vocabulary and expand subjects of interest
Children learn to read successfully with Basic Chinese 500 and Treasure Box partly due to the engaging illustrations. We also created a series of comics that your child can practice on!
LANGUAGE LEARNING TIPS
Children love to contribute.
Something fun to do to help your child master their new language is to help them make a grocery list of the food items that you need to purchase in Chinese.
A fun and interactive way to participate and practice their new language in a situation that applies to everyone in life.
我們會經常為大家探討漢字和語文的課題。
要是你有特別的相關課題希望我們探討，歡迎您告訴我們。
We discuss Chinese language and culture related topics on a regular basis.
If you would like us to discuss certain topics about Chinese, please let us know.
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Many parents are already part of our Facebook Group. If you’d like to take advantage of the collective wisdom of your fellow parents, please join us.
We’d love to hear from you.
Sagebooks Hongkong promotes independent reading and life-long learning by nurturing the child’s confidence, autonomy and self-teaching abilities. Since 2006. Find out more About Us.
© 2020 Sagebooks Hongkong. All rights reserved.
Sagebooks Hongkong promotes independent reading and life-long learning by nurturing the child’s confidence, autonomy and self-teaching abilities. Since 2006. Find out more About Us.
© 2020 Sagebooks Hongkong. All rights reserved.
Sagebooks Hongkong promotes independent reading and life-long learning by nurturing the child’s confidence, autonomy and self-teaching abilities. Since 2006. Find out more About Us.
© 2020 Sagebooks Hongkong. All rights reserved.
