Cross-Contextual Variability in Children's Early Understanding of Visual Media

When and how do children come to understand various kinds of visual media (e.g., pictures, videos, scale models), and how does early experience contribute to variation in the development of visual media comprehension across global contexts? In this selective review, we show that while researchers have investigated how children from Western convenience samples understand visual media, less is known about how this comprehension varies across children in global contexts. Indeed, prior work investigating picture comprehension suggests that children in different contexts may understand pictures at different developmental time points, potentially due to variation in their early picture experiences. These findings demonstrate the need for more research investigating children's comprehension of additional kinds of visual media across contexts. The experience-dependence of visual media comprehension could provide important insight into these abilities' origins, as well as the appropriateness of cross-cultural use of visual media in early childhood measurement.