Naoko Kojima

Narratives of Colours and Emotions: Exploring Emotional Development and Self-reflection in Early Childhood through Colours and Visual Storytelling

Naoko Kojima – Tokoha University, Shizuoka, Japan

(with Mako Fukuda – Graduate School of Teacher Education, Tokyo Gakugei University, Tokyo, Japan

Akihisa Komuro – Tokyo Kasei University, Faculty of Home Economics, Japan

Tin Nguyen – School of Education, University of Queensland, Australia)

Abstract:

Early childhood is a pivotal developmental stage during which children are particularly receptive to their environment (Ardoin & Bowers, 2020; Berk, 2015). A critical component of this period involves fostering emotional understanding and social-emotional development (Blewitt et al., 2021; Malti & Noam, 2016). One way of exploring emotional and reflective understanding among children in this developmental state is through the concepts of colours and how they have been visualised to convey emotional meanings. As a universal medium of emotional expression, colour plays a significant role in communication and meaning-making, as highlighted in semiotics (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2002). In early childhood education, colour is seen as a valuable concept to communicate to children because it is among the first visual concepts of their environment in which they learn. This presentation examines how young children can deepen their emotional self-awareness and reflection through personal associations with colour and visual storytelling. The study focuses on a workshop conducted at a nursery school in Tokyo with children aged 4 to 5. In the workshop, children explored their emotions by associating them with colours and expressing their feelings by creating personal picture storybooks. The process involved reading picture books about colours and emotions, followed by guided activities in which children created their own stories to articulate their emotional experiences and the meanings they associate with specific colours. Short interviews were conducted with the participants to understand the impact of this approach further. These interviews explored the children’s reflections on their emotional connections to colour, the reasons for their choices, and the broader meanings they attributed to their selections. The findings underscore the value of picture books as a medium for young children to communicate their emotions visually, offering new insights into the role of colour in early childhood emotional development.