By Ovidiu Veliscu
Freelance Writer
Pictures are a way to preserve memories, to express the way we feel, and to convey ideas. Photo books are way to keep pictures; they are a way to preserve your memories. And they can also be a way to help your child improve their English.
Pictures provide a fun way of learning. In marketing, written ads have a success rate of about 20%, audio ads have a success rate of about 40%, visual ads have a success rate of about 60%, and the combined audio and video ads have a success rate of 80%. The mind is most receptive to a combination of stimuli. So, if you want to learn or perfect English, it is recommended that you try English learning resources that incorporate visual content.
Children are the most receptive to imagery when learning languages. A fun way for you to help your child learn English is by creating a photo book that resembles a picture book. Use photos of your child as the main character in a story and ask and answer questions about the story.
Children are most receptive to stories, and a story about your child will be even more interesting, especially if the story is about when your child was younger.
Another idea is to create a story photo book involving, say, animals; this way, your child can expand their vocabulary of animal names. To do this, go one afternoon to the zoo and take pictures with your digital camera of all the animals, preferably with your child next to the animals you see. By the end of the day, take a photo of your child sleeping, in order to provide a nice ending to your picture story book.
For example, you can create a short story by adding comments to each photo and printing them, such as “Paul saw the elephant. The elephant comes from Africa. It has a long trunk and big ears. Paul was really excited and wanted to give the elephant peanuts, but he couldn’t, because it wasn’t allowed.”
Or, if the child is older, then you might use bigger words, such as “The elephant is an herbivore. It is a mammal. It spends sixteen hours a day eating. An adult elephant can consume between 140 and 270 kilograms of food per day”. You can customize your photo book by creating a fun cover.
Using this photo book method, you can help your child learn and associate language and objects and expand vocabulary.