Excellent write up on the role of picture books in child development, by Lori Calabrese at The Children’s Book Review site.

Some points I could completely identify with:

-Picture books are multi-sensory, which aids a child’s growing mind and stimulates their imagination.
-The repetition in many picture books allows a child to participate in the story.
-Children love art.
-The illustrations of a picture book help children understand what they are reading and allow young readers to analyze the story.
-Chapter books are not necessarily more complex than picture books and in fact, their vocabulary and sentence structure can be considered simplistic when compared with older level picture books

Be sure to read the resources section and watch the video.

Some resource links while we are on the topic of picture books:
Non-fiction animals picture books by Sheela

Non-fiction picture books list @ The Children’s Book Review

2010 Best Children’s Picture Books

Picture books for digital media

More on picture book apps