LITERARY CULTURAL AND SOCIETAL

INFLUENCES ON CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Week 12
 CHILDREN’S LITERATURE AS A MEANS
OF SOCIAL CHANGE

• All children, without exception, should have access to a literature adapted to their age
group so as to reinforce their awareness of both their culture and their environment,
allowing them to develop on emotional, linguistic and intellectual levels.
• Children’s literature can be defined as an artistic creation with a clearly delineated
audience in mind ̶ children. Conceptually, this literature should go further than
school reading books or educational articles do, as it is a genre which aims to
create very particular work.
• Article 17 in the Convention anticipates this in stating that countries “must encourage
the media to circulate information and tools which are of social and cultural use to
children,” as well as underlining that countries “will encourage the production and
distribution of books for children.”
• However, it would have to consist of a deviation from literary classics ̶ which are
themselves extensions of what has preceded them ̶ and aim for a simpler language,
addressing the individual needs of children, and shouldn’t be merely used to support the
syllabus (as is often the case as outlined in syllabus handbooks)

• The aim is to create a form of expression adapted to children’s perspectives, but which
embraces manifestations of culture such as theatre, poetry, cinema, and dance, while
meeting the criteria of being both an artistic creation and of having children as its
audience.
REALISTIC FICTION’S POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
EFFECTS ON CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT

Realistic Fictions

- Focus on the problems and issues od living today

- One of the most favorite genres in children’s
literature
- Relates to children’s life
- The impact on children’s development is huge