A Semiotic Study of The Image of A Child In The Iranian Animation "Life Skills for Children"

The themes that the animations seek to instill in their child's audiences have never been accidental, but have been followed by specific encodings that eventually lead to the introduction of a predetermined pattern for children. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to semiotically analyze the child representation pattern in animation. For this purpose, using the semiotic method, the most popular and the most popular Iranian animation is "Life Skills for Children". The collection consists of 250 ten-minute episodes that its  production began in 1391 and ended in 1395. In order to get a comprehensive picture of the child in this series, all sections have been studied and analyzed. The results of this study suggest that we are presented with a kind of representation of the "body" of the child and childhood. Highlights and features of the child in this series: Adult dependency, inability to solve personal problems, lack of creativity, lack of modern skills, lack of questioning morale and complete obedience to parents, aggression and impudence towards peers, naivety and it is cynicism. In addition, in child representations, child characters are not represented in their natural age. Rather, they appear smaller and more immature than their biological age, and this immaturity is evident in all their daily behavior and interactions. Such a pattern of representation is generally embedded in the "pre-modern" discourse. Animation Life Skills for Children aims to introduce the most prominent feature of the child as a "passive and nurturing subject".