Imagination in early childhood education

Imagination is the fundamental facility through which people make meaning. In childhood the process of learning to build relevant knowledge systems requires the formalization of order from symbolic codes derived from intuitive, spontaneous and chaotic information. The process of ordering information requires imaginative play for thinking to be realized as factual and fanciful. Education has developed strategies to facilitate imaginative thinking. This follows a developmental process: imagined images are drawn as symbols which later enable the child to tell stories through the visual language; imaginative play uses the embodied experience to make metaphoric connections between fantasy and factual meaning. The psychological process of mental visualization called imagination is essential for the development of literacy. This paper will examine the role of imagination in visual literacy development.