Abstract
In literate societies of the 21st century, written language seems to play a decisive role in both the working and social life of individuals and for this reason, educational reforms focus on children’s development of literacy. Great importance is attached to individuals’ ability to read and understand what they read, since this ability is the basis for their fullest participation and success in social contexts (Lenhart, Suggate, & Lenhart, 2021; Manolitsis, 2016). Research has shown that reading and writing is not connected to the development of explicit skills, but are considered active thinking processes for making meaning, and understanding as well as producing messages (Neumann, 2022; Lenhart, Suggate, & Lenhart, 2021; Dafermou, Koulouri, & Basagianni, 2011). Based on the above and the fact that there is a direct relationship between children’s drawing and speech (Neumann, 2022), a descriptive case study took place to look for evidence and provide examples of how a preschool child’s narrative drawings relate to early literacy skills. Narrative drawings are considered sketches that are accompanied by a story told by the child while drawing or when presenting the final product of artmaking. The specific child’s 35 narrative drawings produced between her four-and-a half and fifth year of age, were collected and the accompanying story was recorded and transcribed. Studying and analyzing both the drawings and the transcribed stories provided evidence that narrative painting promotes children's reading readiness and offers opportunities for meaning making in exciting for the children, self-directed, ways.
Author Information
Eliza Pitri, University of Nicosia, Cyprus
Antonia Michaelidou, University of Nicosia, Cyprus
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