Use a Wordless Picture Book to Teach Your Child to Read

It doesn't make sense. If you want to teach your child to read, why would you use a picture book without words? However, you can use wordless pictures books to help your child develop their visual perception, a set of important pre-reading skills. (Learn more about these skills by clicking here.) Wordless picture books can also be used to teach advanced reading skills.

A wordless picture book can teach your child to:

• pay attention to details
• explain what happens and why
• make inferences, or a good guess as to what is happening in the story, based on what they see in the book and what they already know
  

When a book doesn't have words, children use the pictures to tell the story and determine what the characters are like. Reading a wordless picture book helps kids feel successful and comfortable with books because there are no right or wrong answers. Reading a wordless picture book is something your child can do alone, but they will learn much more if you read them together.

Carl's Afternoon in the Park by Alexandra Day is a wordless picture book, almost. Only the first and last pages have words. The story begins with a woman walking her baby in the park. She meets a friend walking her dog, Carl, and a puppy. The women sit out of view while Carl minds the puppy and the baby.

The book's detailed illustrations depict the primary theme: how others can take care of us and keep us safe. There are a few secondary themes as well: puppies and babies are a lot a like and mommy will always come back. The theme of a book teaches us about ourselves and others.

The pictures show the baby's mother trusts Carl to take care of the baby. They also show Carl's concern for the baby and the puppy. We see the dogs and the baby having fun together. They also show what kind of day it is, the baby isn't wearing many clothes and the baby and the dogs get wet, but not cold. Children use visual analysis to figure out these ideas using the pictures.

The story begins when the mother leaves the baby with Carl. The middle of the story focuses on the dogs and the baby playing together. The story ends when the mother comes back. As children read the story, they learn the skills of part vs. whole and how the parts of the story are each needed to help the story make sense.

Help your child learn to read by enjoying wordless picture books together. Encourage your child to tell you the story and be prepared to be surprised. You might find the story changes each time you read together. This is great. It means they are enriching the story by noticing new details and drawing new conclusions about the story.

Here are some other wordless picture book titles for you and your child to enjoy together:

• Tuesday by David Wiesner
• The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
• Window by Jeannie Barker
• Where Is the Cake by T. T. Khing
• The Adventures of Polo by Regis Faller

Wordless picture books teach essential pre-reading skills to help your child become a successful reader. Your child will be proud to be able to read a book to you. Enjoy reading a wordless picture book with your child and feel confident that you are helping them gain skills and become a great reader in the future.