Embodied literacies: an investigation into how young children embody their engagement with the features of wordless picturebooks

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Throughout my PhD I will investigate young children's embodied practices as they engage with wordless picturebooks.Embodied practices are defined here as whole or compartmentalised body movements that communicate meaning(Strathern & Stewart, 2011). This definition links to the theory of multimodality, which asserts that communication occursthrough a variety of methods (Kress, 2010). The research will analyse young children's use of enactment and physicalobject manipulation, as embodied practices, while they engage with wordless picturebooks. Wordless picturebooks hasbeen chosen for this project due to their narrative and design features (Nikolajeva, 2002; Sipe & Brightman, 2009).Hassett (2010) has suggested that text types and their features affect the types of responses, for instance gesture maybe used to interpret the spatial relations of a visual text. I will investigate this claim by using qualitative data to analysehow children use embodied practices as they engage with the features of wordless picturebooks. My PhD will provideinsights into the role embodied practices play in young children's literacy practices in the classroom. Literacy practicesare understood here as the varied ways that individuals respond to texts (Street, 1993). Through using rich qualitativedata to focus on specific embodied practices, a new and nuanced understanding will be generated as to how childrenuse enactment and physical object manipulation to engage with wordless picturebooks.