This Edutopia article discusses Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). VTS grew out of the research of cognitive psychologist Abigail Housen. After publishing a theory in the early 1980s on stages of aesthetic development, she formulated the idea that children should be taught to make meaning from images, just as they are taught to build meaning from letters in a book. In collaboration with museum educator Philip Yenawine, Housen created a systematic, inquiry-driven method using stage-appropriate art to teach visual literacy.