Why You Should Encourage Your Child’s Interest in Comics

With their colourful illustrations, larger-than-life characters, and engaging, often humorous stories, it is no surprise that comics hold such appeal to children.

These are the elements that make comics such fun—not to mention, in many cases, more accessible. The minimal text and detailed illustrations make reading much less intimidating for beginner readers by giving them visual aids that help them understand the story. For kids just learning read, the visual aspect of comics lightens the cognitive load: It gives them the confidence that they will get to the end of the story, which transforms the act of reading into an adventure.

All of this helps kids become more interested in reading, as it keeps them engaged and feeds their natural curiosity. And when a child gets into the habit of reading at an early age, they are more likely to enjoy reading when they grow up.

Besides introducing children to the joy of reading­—a crucial aspect in itself—reading comics also has numerous educational benefits:

• It stimulates reading skills: Despite widespread misconceptions, reading comic books does involve important reading skills. Children must be active readers and put together the meaning of the story by analyzing both the text and the illustrations, a complex process that requires reflection.
• It involves analysis: When reading a comic book, kids have to consider multiple elements to fully appreciate the story—characters’ facial expressions and body language, details about the plot or setting, and other nuances that might be found in the illustrations. Comics are also a lesson in the importance of punctuation, which can provide clues to the story and characters’ emotions.
• It exercises the ability to draw inferences: Comics require reading between the lines to discern through the images what is not explicitly stated in words. This is an important lifelong reading skill for a child to develop.
• It builds vocabulary: It is common for readers at any level to come across unfamiliar words now and then. The advantage with comic books is that there are illustrations to help decipher them. For children in particular, this is a great way to expand their vocabulary.
• It improves understanding of sequential order in a plot: The panels in a comic strip have to be read in a particular order to make sense (i.e., left to right, top to bottom). Speech bubbles provide an added layer of complexity, since they can indicate either what a character is thinking or what they are saying out loud. All told, children use high-level cognitive skills when they read comic books.
• It improves understanding of narrative structure: Comics help familiarize young readers with the parts of a plot. For example, they generally include a beginning, middle, and end, with a protagonist who goes through a series of events.
• It stimulates concentration: Given the various elements children have to take into account when reading a comic strip, they need to concentrate to be able to follow the plot, understand the illustrations, and read the dialogue.
• It improves information retention: Associating words and images is beneficial for storing information in long-term memory. That's why comics are sometimes used to teach history, for example.
• It encourages artistic creativity: Reading comics with different illustrators introduces kids to a range of artistic styles. Differences can include the choice of colours or fonts, the use of space on the page, the types of panels, and so on.

All reading material, from children’s books to novels to comics, contribute to your child’s development as a reader. Still, it is a good idea to encourage them to branch out. Here are a few suggestions:

• Try to make sure your child is reading a variety of comics, whether in terms of difficulty (i.e., suited to their progressing reading level) or theme.
• Introduce them to different comic book series: If they love to read and reread Dav Pilkey’s comics, for instance, try broadening their horizons by suggesting other authors.
• Look for graphic novels with a combination of comic panels and text without illustrations. If your child enjoys these, they can be a great way to transition to traditional books and novels.