Picture books in reception: a waste of time?

[HarryPottersBroomstick]

I am genuinely curious, not trying to be rude.

DS has just started at a lovely infants school and, as expected, is bringing home picture books to talk to us about. The Biff and Chip ones.

I get what we are supposed to be doing with him, we ask questions and he talks about the pictures and thereby tells us the story (at least I hope that's correct!) but I just wondered why? Does research show this makes reading easier? I am not in a particular rush to get him onto word books BTW, I have faith he will read when he is ready.

He/ we are fortunate that we can afford lots of children's books at home, we go to the library, he gets a bedtime story. Is it for those children who don't get this? To start them gently with holding the book/ turning the pages correctly?

Do other countries that start children later do this?

Thanks

I suspect that for children with poor language skills and little exposure to books, it will introduce vocabulary and the basics of story telling and force discussion of the events rather than just galloping tonelessly through a story.

It’s all about comprehension and being able to follow a narrative. There’s more to reading than just parroting words.

They are fantastic to get children using descriptive words and their imagination. I have to strongly disagree

Ok yes, comprehension makes sense. I guess a child could read well but not understand what they are reading.

He seems to enjoy telling us well enough.

I have worked with some children who have very little experience of books in general, and they are fantastic as an introduction to books. I also found them useful with EAL children, because we could use it to explore new language and it was something they could take home to share with parents.

Otherwise, I feel they're helpful for oral language work, narrative skills and prediction.

They’re very profitable for the publishers
The only use they have is that they introduce the characters found in the scheme anything else can be achieved by sharing high quality picture books.

Using picture books is great for all of the above, whether I would use Biff and Chip books as a good example is a different matter!

They make lots of money for OUP but beyond that there's nothing you can do with them that couldn't be done better with a good quality children's picture book to share.

Story-telling is a wonderful skill. Understanding that there is a beginning, middle and end; learning to sequence; looking at faces and emotions; using imaginations and creativity - all so valuable, and arguably more useful to a 4 year old than bloody phonics.

There’s good research to show that story-telling is good for developing emotional and social skills too.

I used to think this then I got Rosie's Walk and some of the wordless books by Dick Bruna - my kids loved making up the story to those, and then I got it!

Do you really need rubbish Biff et al books to learn about stories?
You don’t need phonics if you’re making up your own story but they’re essential if you want to master accurate word reading rather than guessing

“Does research show this makes reading easier? “ no

My dc has some sn and these really helped learn to tell a story which has helped with explaining what happened in a story misreading is going welll

I meant now reading not misreading

How are they any better than a quality picture book?

Sequencing, comprehension, developing vocabulary etc.

There are still a frightening amount of children who will never have picked up a book, nor had one read to them before.

Schools can’t afford quality picture books and probably don’t have to curate a collection either.

They could if they didn’t waste money buying wordless ORT

They can also borrow book boxes from the library service at no cost to use if they really don’t have books in classrooms.

It does seem odd that at a time when children's literature is so strong and easily available, people can be duped into thinking these lilac Level scheme books are necessary.

Just think how many stories a child who has very few books at home could potentially have been exposed to in the first half term of school if it weren't for the Biff & chip ones.

Thanks for the responses. As previously said I was just curious as to their value. Used a slightly controversial thread title as click bait.

I suppose "Hugs" does the same thing in a more interesting way!

Six wordless ORT books will cost a school £22.50 Ten Julia Donaldson et al picture books £9.99

The wordless biff and chip books are just awful. The stories are not engaging or interesting in the least. I’m actually worried they will put my ds off reading. There are so many lovely picture books out there I just don’t see the need for them.

We were recommended hugs to use by SALT