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Abstract
Background: Original Chinese picture book illustrations for young children are often dominated by adult perspectives and overloaded with redundant visual elements. This overload can easily create a perceptual mismatch between pictorial meaning and the cognitive‑developmental level of children aged 3 to 6 years who are in the preoperational stage. Purpose: This study aims to move beyond the limitations of a single disciplinary paradigm by systematically removing redundant visual information from original picture books and constructing scientifically adaptive visual simplification strategies for illustration. This approach promotes a shift in picture book illustration from empiricist creation toward a child‑centered perspective. Methods: Based on literature research and case analysis, this study examined six representative picture books for young children from China and abroad, including A New Year’s Reunion and The Very Hungry Snake, as textual objects, and interdisciplinary deconstruction was conducted by deeply integrating developmental psychology, Gestalt psychology, and reception aesthetics. Results: The study constructed a dual‑dimensional strategic framework comprising formal and narrative simplification, systematically refining micro‑level indicators related to form, color, composition, characters, scenes, and continuity. These strategies were subsequently translated into an operational three‑stage practical model of conception, drawing, and layout. Conclusion: The simplification strategies proposed in this study help reduce the visual processing and cognitive load of children aged 3 to 6 years when they encounter large‑scale or complex narrative scenes. These strategies not only provide explicit practical guidance for transforming original picture book illustration toward a child‑centered perspective but also expand the theoretical and paradigmatic space of interdisciplinary research on preschool children’s visual cognition and illustration design.
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