Study Theme- Children’s well-being

The report focuses on the role of various children oriented literatures on the learning, educational and psychological aspects of children. The study considers children between the age group of 3 to 4 years to understand the effect of the literatures on their essential growth factors. A multimodal literature and a digital text has been analyzed in order bring forward the study.

Study Theme- Children’s well being

Personal care among children

Considering VEYLDF the children are expected to develop strong sense of well-being. Hence, this is chosen as a prime theme for the effectively analyzing the various aspects related to the essential development of children of the age group between 3 to 4 years. Well-being can help children to reduce their propensity towards falling sick. Moreover, the theme has other essential aspects connected with it like becoming better learners and communicators. Children’s well-being is very important in the years 3 to 4. In Australia, the seasons are changing currently. Especially in Melbourne in Victoria at this time many children fall sick. Hence, it is relevant to the current context of the season that is affecting the city. Children will have to be made aware of personal wellbeing from an early age and various literatures are present in order to depict the same.

There are other aspects of the VEYLDF that is also covered through the theme. The theme essentially cover the elements of learning outcome 3 in which children are assumed to have strong senses of wellbeing and learning outcome 4 that assumes children to be confidents learners that are involved with the learning processes (Grieshaber & Graham, 2017). The various multimodal children’s books and digital texts that are focused towards making children understand various value oriented learnings (Giorgis et al., 1999). In this case the book being considered is “Blow your nose big bad wolf”. The literature review will focus on imagery since multimodal books predominantly use imagery to establish a given idea among the young readers. The picture books have greater opportunities to provide effective education to children in regards to personal care and wellbeing. Hence, the book has been considered in order to project a review of the given literature and how far it lives up to the standards of VEYLF. The digital text is also selected in order to understand its literary significance in accordance with the educational aspects connected to the pedagogy predominantly in use in Victoria (Page & Tayler, 2016).

Visual Imageries in Children’s Literature and their Socio-cultural Relevance

The book being considered is “Blow your nose big bad Wolf’

Author is Steve Smallman

Illustrated by Bruno Merz

The publishing year is 2015

Figure 1: book cover

(Source- bookpository.com)

Visual imageries often provide socio-cultural aspects concerning the given topic. According to many experts visual codes are much necessary for bringing out the actual meaning of a theme of a book (Galda & Short, 1993). The mummy pig has been depicted in the image of a powerful adult who has control over her children, the three little pigs. Moving forward the image has focused towards establishing a relationship of self-identification that the kids can have with the little pigs. However, this relationship is not being established in the long shots where the pigs are being seen at a distance. The images where the pigs are in close range can be easily interpreted by the children (Rintakorpi, 2016). These images have many familiar features like houses and rooms. In a certain picture two of the pigs are directly looking at their mother pig. This is establishing a feeling of family and close relationship within the children’s mind. The pigs are also given different colors. The colors attract the attention of children towards the subject of the book. For example- the pig wearing blue is providing the image of a small male child, a pig is wearing pink to symbolize femininity and the green pig is portraying nature. The theme is projected in a way that can induce family values among children (Cochrane, 2013).

Language is very important factor especially in children’s book. Language of a book needs to present the theme in such a way that the children can easily understand and interpret the meaning of a book. The socio-cultural perspectives of language use are also very important towards the projection of the central theme contained in a book (Giugni, 2011). The language factors are important as children need to understand the meaning of the message that is being projected through the book. The language of the book is simplistic. The better feature of the language utilized in the book is the way it can be easily interpreted among children from various cultural backgrounds. The children were able to easily construct a meaning from the pictures. Moreover, they were able to identify the message with the real life scenarios (Campbell & Tan, 2017).

In all the book was able to capture the attention of children and they were able to understand the value of personal health and well-being. The book took the help of dominant literary imagery in order to project health and welfare value among children. The effect of the book was noticed among children, who were seen to use tissues when sneezing (Campbell & Tan, 2017). Moreover, children were seen to advise their peers to use tissue while sneezing. The imagery was powerful enough to leave an impression over the children. The books conveys an essential message to the children in regards to developing healthy habits toward stopping the spread of diseases.

Language Use in Children’s Books

Figure 2: Germs are not for sharing cover

(Source- Barnes & Noble ebooks)

The digital text being analyzed is a book “germs are not for sharing” in you tube

The modes that have been used in the digital text is direct and specific. Children are depicted in various places and situations that might involve contact with germs. Moreover, the features are simplistic. Children are shown to be in various circumstances and the option of healthy habits are available. For example- children are shown to be sneezing and in the same picture a tissue paper is shown. In another image children are shown how to clean themselves after going to places that might have germs.

The modes are working together greatly in the projected digital text. This is because a situation where children might get affected by germs is being provided simultaneously with the ways in which the contacted germs can be cleaned off. Moreover, the imagery uses the powerful motive of all children working together towards their health and wellbeing. This works really well towards establishing personal care as individual as well as group responsibilities (Hassett & Curwood, 2009). The imagery also involves the portrayal of children taking part in healthy exercises along with their friends and family, which enhances the learning among children (Spodek & Saracho, 1993). The most important thing that the various modes should contribute towards is increasing the learning ability of the children. Children are greatly influenced by the various types of audio visual imagery that they come across at various instances. It is known that children of the age group between 3 to 4 years are not much inclined towards reading. It is also to be considered that children at this age can read with much difficulty (Page & Tayler, 2016). Hence audio visual modes are much important to enhance their learning capabilities and induce effective learning among them. The usage of various modes have been effective in establishing the dominant message to the children. The depiction of hand drawn children can further enhance the learning abilities of children.

The digital text is focused towards establishing the norms of healthy habits among young minds. Moreover, the imagery is used greatly towards establishing the fact that germs are unwelcome and are the prime reasons behind sickness. The imagery focuses on the values related to health and wellbeing especially among children. The roles that the children have to play for their personal wellbeing and the collective wellbeing of their peers have been very aptly portrayed (Galda & Short, 1993). The various factors that make germs unwelcome in the body or household have been very systematically and simplistically presented. The audio visual media has been synthesized with old fashioned storytelling. The result is that the children do get to hear stories but the additional benefit is that get to see an actual book through digital audio-visual media. This helps to create a strong interest among the children and the prospects of the message getting clearly established on the young minds of the children are greatly increased.

Conclusion

In conclusion it can be said that the literatures that were analyzed have the ability to positively affect young minds of the 3 to 4 year olds. Children rely much more on imagery to form ideas than adults. Hence, illustrated literatures are much more successful in establishing effective learning outcomes among children.

References

Campbell, S., & Tan, M. C. (2017). A Selective Collection of Children’s Health Fiction 2014-2016.

Cochrane, V. (2013). Extending children’s vocabulary and comprehension through oral and visual literacy. Practically Primary, 18(3), 39-43.

Galda, L., & Short, K. G. (1993). Children’s Books: Visual Literacy: Exploring art and illustration in children’s books. The Reading Teacher, 46(6), 506-516.

Giorgis, C., Johnson, N. J., Bonomo, A., Colbert, C., Conner, A., Kauffman, G., & Kulesza, D. (1999). Children’s books: Visual literacy. The Reading Teacher, 53(2), 146-153.

Giugni, M. (2011). ‘Becoming worldly with’: an encounter with the Early Years Learning Framework. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 12(1), 11-27.

Grieshaber, S., & Graham, L. J. (2017). Equity and educators enacting the Australian early years learning framework. Critical Studies in Education, 58(1), 89-103.

Hassett, D. D., & Curwood, J. S. (2009). Theories and practices of multimodal education: The instructional dynamics of picture books and primary classrooms. The Reading Teacher, 63(4), 270-282.

Page, J., & Tayler, C. (2016). Learning and teaching in the early years. Cambridge University Press.

Rintakorpi, K. (2016). Documenting with early childhood education teachers: pedagogical documentation as a tool for developing early childhood pedagogy and practises. Early Years, 36(4), 399-412.

Spodek, B., & Saracho, O. (1993). Language and Literacy in Early Childhood Education. Yearbook in EarlyChildhood Education, Volume 4. Teachers College Press.