The majority of our students are visual learners, so we need to pay more attention to the development of their visual skills. Our schools are very focused on verbal literacy, but visual literacy is essential to success in the classroom, especially for our visual learners. Visual literacy requires us to be able to read, write and interpret visual images, so we need to help our children gain proficiency.

Here are a few visual literacy activities you can do with your preschooler:

Practice seeing – While seeing happens spontaneously, strong observation skills are honed over time. Become more aware of the visual world around you. As you talk with your child be intentional about naming things you see, helping them build their vocabulary – visually.

Read Picture Books – Don’t just read the words, read the pictures. Literally – read the pictures. Talk about the images in a way that invites the child to notice the action, details, emotions of characters and ways the pictures help tell the story.

“I Spy Something ….” – Whether it’s something green, red, tall or round, playing this kind of game with your child invites them to notice and name colors, shapes and sizes of things around them. Let them have their turn choosing the ‘something’ and enjoy having them lead the activity.

Look at Art – Head to the library and check out books full of high quality images. Look for books full of art images, photography, unique landscapes or animals in the wild. Be intentional about exposing your child to images they may not encounter in their everyday experience and enjoy lots of conversation about them.

Learn to Draw – The number of visual images children can create and use will reflect their visual vocabulary. Without instruction kids grow up with a very limited visual vocabulary. Learning to draw gives children the tools and image vocabulary they need to ‘write’ visually.

Tell us some of the ways you help your children learn to see…..

What is your child’s learning style?  There are three basic learning styles; visual, tactile, and auditory.  Take the test and get immediate results: Is your child a visual learner? 

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Bette Fetter Founder and CEO of Young Rembrandts and Author of Being Visual [email protected] Follow Bette on Twitter