Introducing Visual Literacy Activities for Primary School Children in India

Visual literacy is an essential skill to comprehend and interpret visual meaning efficiently. Previous research has claimed visual literacy to be necessary for thinking, communication, and learning. Several researchers have realized the importance of visual awareness in children, which does not only benefit their visual skills but also their verbal skills, motivation, engagement, independence, and confidence. Despite having multiple advantages of introducing visual literacy in the school curriculum, scant attention has been paid to introduce visual literacy for school children in India. This study is an intervention to introduce visual literacy through VL activity book and scaffolding for primary school children. Several visual literacy tasks were developed and tested with primary school children in Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh, India). Results show significant improvement in children's visual literacy skills after our VL activity-based learning program's intervention. We argue for the design and implementation of such visual literacy activities as a part of the curriculum for Indian children to develop an eye for it and understand visuals in a better way.