Semester
Fall
Date of Graduation
2008
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
EdD
College
College of Education and Human Services
Department
Curriculum & Instruction/Literacy Studies
Committee Chair
Joy Saab.
Abstract
How can young children use visual art to communicate? This study used Halliday's communicative functions of language (Halliday, 1973), to frame the answer to this question; Halliday's categories of communicative functions are: instrumental, regulatory, interactional, personal, heuristic, imaginative, and representational/informative. Five children, between the ages of three and five, were observed and interviewed as they voluntarily created visual art over a six-week period. In that time period, each of the seven functions of language was demonstrated collectively by the participants. The research was conducted by an educator employed in the early childhood setting. Qualitatively, this study confirmed that young children are capable of utilizing art in a variety of ways to communicate.
Recommended Citation
Wright, Clover Simms, "Communicative functions of young children's visual art" (2008). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 2867.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/2867