Many parents go to great lengths to find the perfect books to share with their children. Parents often select traditional books with text embedded. At times, picture books with an abundance of text can become difficult for children to process and for parents as they try to simplify and narrate stories. Many parents rely heavily on reading books verbatim to their children and for children who struggle with decoding, traditional children’s books can appear daunting to work through.
Research shows that wordless picture books can be advantageous for developing both reading and language skills in children. Wordless picture books which rely primarily on pictures to tell their story are said to promote narrative language skills, vocabulary development, creativity, and higher-level language skills as children become better attuned to visual context clues for understanding the plot. The Scholastic Company supports that wordless picture books are particularly helpful for children who would be considered visual rather than auditory learners. Wordless picture books are also shown to help children develop an understanding of cause-effect, conflict resolution, plot development, as well as pragmatic elements of language (e.g. body language, emotions, facial expressions.)