The Awesome Benefits of Comic Books for Kids

Comic books are the ideal choice for young readers. The bright, colorful illustrations, combined with bold exclamatory words and exciting storylines, make comic books and graphic novels perfect for kids to read. Unfortunately, in the past, comics were not seen as real books. They weren’t considered educationally beneficial like traditional books, and therefore children were not encouraged to read them.

Thankfully, this outlook has changed. Modern educators and parents recognize the awesome benefits of comic books for kids, like helping kids develop literacy skills and increasing reading engagement, especially among kids with literacy disorders. As a result, comic books are now being used in the classroom and at home to encourage kids’ interest in reading and deepen their practical reading skills.

Literacy Skills 

The format and content of comic books help teach essential literacy skills to children. Literacy helps kids  increase their self-esteem and academic performance, which affects their overall quality of life.

Critical literacy skills that comic books help teach kids include:

Vocabulary and Spelling

The way that dialogue is broken up on the page, along with the large, exclamatory text, helps readers identify words they might otherwise ignore. Like picture books, comics associate words, and phrases with images, which helps kids develop a more comprehensive vocabulary through visual recognition.

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to discern how words sound. Comic books, especially when read aloud, are an excellent tool for learning the phonemic characteristics of words. Descriptive words and dialogue put emphasis on letter combinations, which helps kids sound out words and recognize them in other reading materials.

Reading Comprehension

One of the biggest benefits of reading comic books for kids is that it aids in reading comprehension. The layout of the page, combined with illustrations and short bursts of text, helps kids put all of the elements together to understand what they are reading.

Reading Engagement

Comic books are known for their thrilling stories and larger-than-life characters. Whether it is a superhero story or a piece of sci-fi literature, comics keep kids interested in the narrative.

It takes a long time to finish a page in a regular novel, and in completing a page, readers may give up because they’re already exhausted mentally. This leads to poor reader engagement and a dislike of reading. Comic books, on the other hand,  change the way kids see literature. They get excited to read and stay invested in characters and storylines.

Struggling Readers

Although comic books can help all kids with reading engagement and literacy skills, the benefit is most noticeable in children with Dyslexia and children with Autism.

Comic books aid dyslexic learners and help struggling readers make sense of what is on the page. Kids with learning disabilities can pick up on characters’ emotions through the images in a comic book, which helps them learn a lot about identifying emotions in their own lives. They can also notice context and read between the lines because comic books lay out their stories in a relatable way.

Comic books based on traditional literature or historical experiences are excellent supplemental materials that educators and parents can use to help readers with disabilities learn about important topics.

Learn More at Comix Well Spring

Comix Well Spring offers additional resources for parents and educators looking to use comic books to help their kids develop reading skills and get interested in literature. We also offer comic book printing services for those who may want to create their own comic book or encourage your child to write one of their own.

Visit our website or contact one of our helpful associates to learn more about Comix Well Spring printing services.