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It explains semiotics and related concepts such as modality, showing how multimodal literacy combines talk, gesture, drawing, writing, and dramatic play. Using picture books as an entry point, it describes how children interpret visual and textual cues during read-alouds, then transform blank pages into storm-related scenes through spatial arrangement, color, texture, and design choices.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/making-sense-of-childrens-drawings-and-semiotic-explorations/600806/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/making-sense-of-childrens-drawings-and-semiotic-explorations/600806.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"dhado","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-05","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":52},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"How do children use signs to create meaning in their drawings and writing?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Children invest visual elements with meaning, using design features such as line, color, shape, texture, and layout to represent ideas and feelings rather than only producing graphics.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What role do picture books and read-aloud sessions play in children’s literacy development?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Read-alouds support children’s development of literacy, including visual literacy, by exposing them to multimodal expression that links written language, visual imagery, and graphic design.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How can teachers observe meaning-making in children’s multimodal artwork?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Teachers can develop rich understandings by observing how children represent verbally, visually, spatially, and through other forms of representation as these unfold during interpretation activities.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},600806,1792189629,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":52,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":39,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":46},5909893218464,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45","Making Sense of Children’s Drawings and Semiotic Explorations  \nYoung artists use signs to standfor or to represent something other Cathleen S. Soundy than themselves. Learn how children invest signs with meaning as  \nthey draw and write.  \nPicture books constitute the first format through which most children experience literature. Young readers respond positively to the visual images and written language of picture books that tell a story (Goodwin, 2009) . While offered primarily for the pleasure of an implied child viewer,“reading picture books aloud can be an important contribution to children’s development of literacy, especially visual literacy”(Mjor, 2010, p. 179). In the process of listening to picture storybooks, children build up knowledge about semiotics, defined as systems of representation (including signs and symbols), as they observe how authors and artists share ways of making meaning.  \nDefinitions  \n• Semiotics: the science that studies signs and their use in representation  \n• Modality: the way in which signs are transmitted (oral, gesture, written)  \n• Mode: method  \nMultimodalities and Semiotics  \nChildren experience “multimodalities” in literacy, combining talk, drawing, gesture, writing, and dramatic play in multiple ways as they make meaning (Gallas, 1994; Kress, 1997; Kress, 2010) . In some circumstances, meanings can be made from a single mode. But most children, when given the opportunity, tend to create multimodal texts. As young artists apply a multiplicity of modes to their representation and communication  \nactivities,“meanings are made, distributed, received, interpreted and remade through many representational communicative modes – not just through language – whether as speech or writing”(Jewitt, 2009, p. 14) . Within this multimodal ensemble, the freedom to blend drawing, writing and telling puts children in a position to select those features across modes that interest them and to extend opportunities for communicating meaning (Mavers, 2011) .  \nPrinciples derived from the field of semiotics provide another useful framework for understanding children’s drawings in relation to their ideas and feelings. Semiotics is defined as “the science that studies signs and their use in representation”(Danesi, 2007) . Social semiotics draws attention to the ways in which meaning is constituted within the context of social relations and processes. When a multimodal social semiotic theory is applied to the work of children, researchers can view how signs and messages are situated within the context of social environments and in social interactions (Kress, 2010) .  \nBoth theoretical positions view children as sign-makers who utilize the resources available to them in their respective socio-cultural environment. When children draw they are doing far more than producing graphics (Anning, 1997): they are purposely investing signs with meaning. Children experiment with basic visual signifiers – artistic elements of design (line, color, shape, and texture), layout, and choosing one design over another – when creating visual texts (Danesi, 2007) . Young artists use signs to stand for or to represent something other than themselves. A line that zigzags might act as asignifier to express ‘lightning’. Several lines that zigzag may be a child’s way of indicating many bolts oflightning or a storm that’s growing in intensity. Meaning  \nDimensions of Early Childhood Vol 43, No 3, 2015  39  \nMaking Sense of Children’s Drawings and Semiotic Explorations  \n\n|  |  | Photo by Elisabeth Nichols |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n|  | Rich understandings of the artwork and the artist arises when teachers learn to observe the child’s verbal, visual, spatial, and other forms of representation as they unfold. |  |\n\ncan also be made by the positioning of elements in space as well as by elements of color or texture (Kress, 2010) . Raindrops on one side of the page may suggest that a storm is approaching and a red door might signal a prominent poin","cbCairsDbFMXPMLM","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCairsDbFMXPMLM","pdf",551950,"English","# Semiotics and foundational definitions\n## Semiotics, modality, and mode\n# Multimodalities and meaning-making\n## Combining talk, drawing, gesture, writing, and play\n# Semiotic frameworks for children’s artwork\n## Social semiotics and socio-cultural resources\n# Classroom example: Leo the Lightning Bug\n## Read-alouds and storm-themed drawing response","[{\"question\":\"How do children use signs to create meaning in their drawings and writing?\",\"answer\":\"Children invest visual elements with meaning, using design features such as line, color, shape, texture, and layout to represent ideas and feelings rather than only producing graphics.\"},{\"question\":\"What role do picture books and read-aloud sessions play in children’s literacy development?\",\"answer\":\"Read-alouds support children’s development of literacy, including visual literacy, by exposing them to multimodal expression that links written language, visual imagery, and graphic design.\"},{\"question\":\"How can teachers observe meaning-making in children’s multimodal artwork?\",\"answer\":\"Teachers can develop rich understandings by observing how children represent verbally, visually, spatially, and through other forms of representation as these unfold during interpretation activities.\"}]","Making Sense of Children’s Drawings and Semiotic Explorations | PDF",1792091417]