Comics could help overcome reading gaps

That's what a professor in Texas is arguing, according to ABC7-KLTV:

As students across East Texas continue working to rebound from pandemic-era learning loss, one local educator says the secret to closing the reading gap might be found inside comic books.

Dr. Gina Doepker, a professor of literacy education at the University of Texas at Tyler, believes graphic storytelling could be an unexpected solution to helping struggling students catch up.

“If we can get students hooked on books like comics, then that is going to increase their motivation, their engagement, their skills like fluency and comprehension,” Doepker said. [...]

In a world where children grow up surrounded by smartphones and tablets, Doepker says today’s students are naturally becoming visual learners. Because of that, leaning into visual literacy through comic books and graphic novels makes practical sense.

The format helps eliminate the intimidation factor often felt when opening a text-heavy page. Whether it is fiction favorites like Marvel’s Spider-Man, Captain America, and stories about dinosaurs, or non-fiction titles explaining the U.S. Constitution, comics meet children right where their interests are.

The demand among young readers is already evident. A study by Libraries Connected found nearly 80% of libraries identified children ages 6 to 11 as their most frequent comic book borrowers.

Interesting they bring up the Constitution, because with the way the USA suffered in the past decade with cancel culture and other terrible PC issues, it's something children could definitely learn about now in comics format. Of course, bad ideologies can't be made a component of whatever comics children are expected or encouraged to read if the study's to be carried out successfully. And newer Marvel/DC comics don't make good examples for children either; some are actually too "adult" for them at this point too, like more modern Batman books. Perhaps creator-owned/independent comics would make a better choice. And if parents check the content carefully to make sure there's nothing inappropriate for children, then, things'll work out for the better.