Books with too many pictures slow vocabulary learning

A study from psychologists at the University of Sussex suggests that more than one illustration per double-page distracts children and hinders learning.

The study involved reading to early years pupils from books with only one picture per double page, as well as from books with illustrations on both left and right pages. The illustrations introduced the children to new objects, named on the page.

The researchers found that children who were read stories with only one illustration per double page learned twice as many words as those who were read books with two illustrations at a time.
Picking up more words

“Children who are too young to read themselves don’t know where to look, because they are not following the text," said Zoe Flack, one of the authors of the paper. "This has a dramatic impact on how well they learn new words from stories,” she continued.

In a follow-up experiment, researchers used a hand-swipe gesture, to guide the children to look at the relevant illustration before the text was read out. They found that this was an effective way of ensuring that children were able to learn new words from books with two illustrations on a page.

“By giving children less information at once, or guiding them to the correct information, we can help them learn more words,” Flack said.