Visual Communication and Autism

In Modern day America, everything in the world is changing, from technology to the education provided for all children. As mentioned before our world is changing, and it is becoming a media oriented world! With that said there are many people who believe that Visual communication is affecting children 's Verbal ability. Then there are those who disagree and say that Visual communication does not affect children in a negative way. In this essay we will determine for ourselves if we believe that Visual communications indeed affects children 's learning ability. Visual Communications, also known as Graphic Design is basically what surrounds us everyday in our modern world. Visual communications is everything from print images (like those in children 's books), graphic design, and TV, all the way up to architecture, design, and urban design. Those are the very elements that are seen, and that surround us in our everyday life. Although Visual Communications is something that surrounds us, there are people who believe that Visual communications is affecting children 's learning abilities.
There are reasonable amounts of information that support the claims people have made on this position. I will be analyzing 3 articles that support the position of Visual communications affecting children 's learning ability. In the article "Synthetic Theory of Visual Communication", by Paul Martin Lester, Ph.D. He explains how Visual Communications is the art of using images with or without words to either promote or explain something to you. Lester also talks about how educators, including parents, question how things got to the point where their kids can 't read. "The answer is often simplistic: Too many pictures and not enough words", says Lester.(par.3) Another thing that Lester talks about in his article is how "To a Child, There is no difference between words and pictures-they are one and the same."(par.20) Then he goes on to say that "Words are repressive while pictures

Cited: Bamford, AThe Grammar of Visual Literacy within the World of Interactive Media. Paper presented at the education Research Network Conference on Learning, Spetses,Greece. (2001, July) www.cell68.com/curriculumguide/GrammarOfVisualLiteracy/o1.html This article is about how art is used by people to express ones self, and how art has always been around since the beginning of time. This article fits well with my essay because it also talks about how "designers, design their work so that adolescence can interpret it." Burger, K. & Winner, E.Instruction in Visual Art: Can It Help Children Learn to Read? Journal of Aesthetic Education. (2000) www.cell68.com/curriculumguide/ArtReading/01.html This article is an article based on research done by the two authors who wrote it. They did research on searched for other studies done, that fit "their strict standards of acceptable research that investigated the relationship between visual art instruction and reading skills " The article also includes methods, results, contributions, and commentaries. Lester, Martin Paul, Ph.D.Syntactic Theory of Visual Communication. Department of Communications California State University at Fullerton. 22 Feb. 2007. 2006 This article is a rather long article that includes input on both positive and negative positions on visual communication. Although the article is written by Lester, Martin Paul, Ph.D. there are also a various amounts of scholars who have input in his article. This article talks about our "new media oriented world", and how everyone not just kids, are being affected by it. Moriarty, Sandra. Visual Communication Theory: A search for Roots. Visual Communication Conference 9, Flagstaff AZ. (1995)