Illustrations and Reading Comprehension Sabrina Belkin Images in children’s picture books enhance a child’s vocabulary and reading comprehension. It is known that more brain area is engaged when children see illustrations accompanying written passages (Louie and Sierschynski et al., 2015). According to research, children better recall and comprehend written text when also shown images of the information they are reading. Because kids know so few words, they need the accompanying illustrations to help them decipher the meaning of the words. Illustrations remind kids of the events of the story and allow them to draw abstractions about the story based on the drawn backgrounds and facial expressions. Further research could explore if images stop being essential to reading comprehension as reading levels increase. Illustrations help children become better readers.
5 | Reading and the Brain | Volume 4 | Spring 2022
