Resumen

This study investigates children’s understanding of audiovisual productions — films, animations, and series — with the possibility of extending the discussion to adolescence and adulthood, based on the stages of art understanding proposed by Michael Parsons (1992), articulating them with bodily experience as a sensitive axis of the learning process. In dialogue with Jean Piaget’s stages of development, the study is grounded in the understanding that the relationship with audiovisual language is not restricted to internal cognitive processes, but also involves bodily, affective, and interpretative responses that transform through repeated contact with the works. The theoretical framework is based on Ana Mae Barbosa’s Triangular Approach (2014), understood as the articulation between image reading — in this research, moving images — contextualization, and artistic production, as well as on Alain Bergala’s cinema-hypothesis (2008; 2013), which conceives cinema as an aesthetic and formative experience rather than as a merely illustrative tool in the school context. The study aims to systematize Parsons’ stages of understanding from the centrality of the body as a mediator of the enjoyment and learning of audiovisual art, as well as to analyze the pedagogical developments of this systematization in school practices. Methodologically, the research developed didactic propositions in Art classes at EMEF Paulo Setúbal (SP, Brazil), involving the reading of video performances and their historical and aesthetic contextualization. Qualitative records of the children’s experiences were collected, including reports and observations. Partial results indicate advances in students’ interpretative abilities, aesthetic vocabulary, and narrative understanding, highlighting the potential of audiovisual language as a formative language in the school context.