ABSTRACT
While we take great efforts in teaching children to read, and in persuading both children and those adults who acts as mediators, of the importance of reading, it is a common prejudice that visual literacy comes natural and does not have to be taught and trained. True, there is vast evidence of very young children responding to images (e.g., Arizpe and Styles 2003); however, response and understanding are not quite identical. Neither do adults automatically acquire visual reading skills, as we all have witnessed our students’ rather naïve and primitive discussion of picturebooks when they fi rst encounter these in a children’s literature course.
