A study explored how children respond to visuals and how a program of visual literacy enhances oral and written response to pictures. The first and fifth grades of two schools, one urban and one suburban, with different socioecomic groups of students, were chosen to participate in a 1-year program consisting of one visual literacy lesson per week. Both oral and written data were gathered in sessions in which two stimulus materials representing two distinctly different visual styles were used, one watercolor each by Winslow Homer and Paul Klee. All the children chose one of the paintings and dictated about it. Sixty children (15 from each classroom) actually provided the data. Analysis of responses centered on three different language measures, two for quantity and one for quality. Findings revealed that, regardless of urban or suburban setting, as children grow older, boys seem to move from preferring representational art to preferring abstract art, while girls seem to move from preferring abstract art to preferring representational art. Among neither males nor females in the fifth grade was there apparent developmental progression toward more language. Also, gender differences were apparent in considering number of words generated. (Three tables of data are included.) (KEH)