ABSTRACT
Children learn to read from the moment they are born. Their recognition of shape, and the translation of shape into meaning, for example by familiarity when they respond to their mother’s face, is the first stage of their adaptation to a world of symbols and images. What children see depends on their interpretation of what they see. They learn to focus and they learn through their experience to make sense of what they see. After a time it is almost impossible to revert to that innocent gaze which does not automatically interpret what is seen according to previous experience. For us, it is impossible to look at even a simple sign without using some interpretation. In this picture the top horizontal line of these two looks larger because of our familiarity with perspective: https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315042510/c8b80736-a2c4-4730-8977-7344bb7618be/content/figu6_1_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
