A is for Apple. E is for Elephant.

Description: This animal has big, flappy ears; legs like tree trunks; a long, flexible nose that it uses to feed itself; gray, wrinkled skin; and horns called tusks that protrude from the side of its face.

How do you think someone who had never seen an elephant before would imagine one based on that description?

Our children learn to read by putting words and letters together with pictures. Why is this so effective? Pictures are concrete representations of reality. Words are abstractions.
 

Why it works

Have you ever read a book and then gone to see a movie? You were probably disappointed by the movie, and here's why: As you read a book, you build a picture in your head. Because every reader builds a different picture, it's just impossible for a movie to live up to every reader's imagination.

But if you see the movie first, the film-maker's view becomes “stamped” in your mind. Then when you read the book, you envision the film's actors as the main characters. Your imagination is conforming to the “world view” of the film-maker.

A verbal or written message is subject to interpretation. A message contained in a picture is concrete.  >> Read more of this article at XPlane.