Abstract
The research study deals with activities with illustrations oriented to facilitating preschool children's comprehension of written text. The theoretical background is stated on the connections between the development of reading pre-literacy, facilitation of the development of reading strategies, and reading comprehension.
The empirical part is aimed to design and verify methods of working with illustrations supporting children's reading comprehension in kindergartens. Through the qualitative research (methods of data collection consist of the observation method and the interview method), the differences are compared between research and experimental samples (54 children from 4 classes in two kindergartens).
The skills of all children involved in the research (the research sample and the experimental sample) were examined through the pretest. Subsequently, 6 lessons were prepared, which were focused on the development of reading strategies and supporting children's reading comprehension.
A total of 24 children (the research sample) participated in these activities. All children involved within the research process were then tested (the posttest) and the differences between the experimental and research samples were examined.
The results of the research sample have been significantly improved, especially in the ability to estimate the emotions of characters or predicting storylines from illustrations. A positive effect on the level of reading pre-literacy was noted in the development of pre-mathematical activities and children's emotional intelligence.