Advertisement

Understanding Stories as Multimodal Experiences in Young Children’s Development

  • Marilyn J. Narey
Chapter
First Online:
Part of the Educating the Young Child book series (EDYC, volume 16)

Abstract

Historically and culturally, stories are multimodal events that engage and instruct young children through image, movement, and sound. Whether children are gathered around campfires or computers, stories have the power to captivate, influence, and inspire young learners throughout early development. Not only do children read, listen to, and view stories, they also create stories through various modes and textual forms. Parents and families can support children’s development by understanding and utilizing multiple modalities to engage children through stories. Multimodal perspectives of story can promote cognitive, social-emotional, physical, and communicative development. In this chapter, I examine how stories function as multimodal experiences across developmental domains and explore how parents and families intentionally and creatively employ multimodal processes to encourage and support this development across traditional and digital textual forms.

Keywords

Multimodality Picture books Parent-child interactions Digital literacy 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. Arrow, A. W., & Finch, B. T. (2013). Multimedia literacy practices in beginning classrooms and at home: The differences in practices and beliefs. Literacy, 47(3), 131–141.  https://doi.org/10.1111/lit.12006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Bakó, R. K. (2016). Digital transition: Children in a multimodal world. Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Social Analysis, 6(1), 145–154. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2886613
  3. Barton, G., & Baguley, M. (2014). Learning through story: A collaborative, multimodal arts approach. English Teaching, 13(2), 93.Google Scholar
  4. Bus, A. G. (2002). Joint caregiver-child storybook reading: A route to literacy development. In S. B. Neuman & D. K. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook of early literacy research (Vol. 1, pp. 179–191). New York: The Huilford Press.Google Scholar
  5. Chandler, D. (2007). Semiotics: The basics (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Collier, D. R., & Kendrick, M. (2016). I wish I was a lion a puppy a multimodal view of writing process assessment. Pedagogies, 11(2), 167–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2009). “Multiliteracies”: New literacies, new learning. Pedagogies: An international journal, 4(3), 164–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2013). “Multiliteracies”: New literacies, new learning. In M. Hawkins (Ed.), Framing languages and literacies: Socially situated views and perspectives (pp. 105–135). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
  9. Cutspec, P. A. (2006). Oral storytelling within the context of the parent-child relationship. Talaris Research Institute, 1(2), 1–8.Google Scholar
  10. Ergül, A. (2017). Analysis of humor elements in illustrated story books for children. Journal of Education, (17), 15–27.Google Scholar
  11. Forman, G. (1996). Negotiating with art media to deepen learning. Exchange, 3(96), 56–58.Google Scholar
  12. Gee, J. P. (2004). New times and new literacies: Themes for a changing world. In A. F. Ball & S. W. Freedman (Eds.), Bakhtinian perspectives on language, literacy and learning (pp. 279–306). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. Golden, J., & Gerber, A. (1990). A semiotic perspective of text: The picture story book event. Journal of Reading Behavior, 22, 203–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Handerhan, E. C. (1993). Literacy, aesthetic education, and problem solving. Theory Into Practice, 32(4), 244–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. Heath, S. B. (1982). Protean shapes in literacy events: Ever-shifting oral and literate traditions. In D. Tannen (Ed.), Spoken and written language: Exploring orality and literacy (pp. 91–117). Norwood: Ablex.Google Scholar
  16. Jewitt, C. (2008). Multimodality and literacy in school classrooms. Review of Research in Education, 32, 241–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Kenney, C. K. (2016). It’s OK to play: The importance of playing while reading aloud to young children. Childhood Education, 92(2), 161–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. Kress, G. (1997/2005). Before writing: Rethinking the paths to literacy. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
  19. Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (1996). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
  20. Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Multimodal discourse: The modes and Media of Contemporary Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  21. Kunhardt. (1940). Pat the bunny. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
  22. Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2011). New literacies: Everyday practices and social learning. Columbus: McGraw-Hill International.Google Scholar
  23. Masataka, N. (2014). Development of reading ability is facilitated by intensive exposure to digital children’s picture book. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 396.  https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. McCloud, S. (1994). Understanding comics: The invisible art. New York: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
  25. Mills, K. A. (2015). Literacy theories for the digital age: Social, critical, multimodal, spatial, material and sensory lenses. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  26. Narey, M. J. (2008). Social and psychological theories of creativity and reflective practice: A conceptual analysis. Paper presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. http://www.aera.net/repository
  27. Narey, M. J. (2017a). The creative “Art” of making meaning. In M. J. Narey (Ed.), Multimodal perspectives of language, literacy, and learning: The critical “art” of making meaning. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
  28. Narey, M. J. (2017b). Multimodal visions: Bringing “Sense” to our 21st century texts. In M. J. Narey (Ed.), Multimodal perspectives of language, literacy, and learning: The critical “art” of making meaning. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
  29. New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  30. Nichols, B. (1981). Ideology and the image: Social representation in the cinema and other media. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
  31. Paivio, A. (1986). Mental representations. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  32. Robertson, S. J. L., & Reese, E. (2017). The very hungry caterpillar turned into a butterfly: Children’s and parents’ enjoyment of different book genres. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 17(1), 3–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  33. Russell-Bowie, D. (2009). MMADD about the arts (Vol. 2). Sydney: Pearson Australia.Google Scholar
  34. Saussure. (1966). A course in general linguistics (W. Baskin, Trans.). New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
  35. Shannon, P. (1995). Texts, lies and videotape: Stories about life, literacy and learning. Portsmouth: Heinemann.Google Scholar
  36. Siegel, M. (2012). New times for multimodality? Confronting the accountability culture. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(8), 671–680.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  37. Smeets, D., & Bus, A. G. (2013). Picture storybooks go digital: Pros and cons. In S. B. Neuman & L. B. Gambrell (Eds.), Quality Reading instruction in the age of common Core standards (pp. 176–189). Newark: International Reading Association.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  38. Takacs, Z. K., Swart, E. K., & Bus, A. G. (2015). Benefits and pitfalls of multimedia and interactive features in technology-enhanced storybooks: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 85(4), 698–739.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  39. Wolfe, S., & Flewitt, R. (2010). New technologies, new multimodal literacy practices and young children’s metacognitive development. Cambridge Journal of Education, 40(4), 387–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  40. Wu, S. (2014). A multimodal analysis of image-text relations in picture books. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 4(7), 1415–1420.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  • Marilyn J. Narey
    • 1
  1. 1.Narey Educational ConsultingPittsburghUSA

Personalised recommendations

Cite chapter

Buy options