An examination of factors that affect young children's learning and transfer from picturebooks

Children are surrounded by symbols from early in life, and within a few years they must master a variety of educational symbols, including letters, numbers, mathematical symbols, maps, and in some cases musical notation and computer icons. Extensive research points to the importance of beginning to acquire this knowledge in preschool and early elementary school. For example, children who learn letters and their relations to sounds at a young age perform substantially better in later reading, not only in early elementary school but also through high school and perhaps beyond (Foulin 2005; Hulme et al. 2012; Levin et al. 2006; Stevenson and Newman 1986).