Health communication through picturebooks: perspectives from adult family members and health professionals on children's books about dementia

Many children know someone with dementia and experience the effects of the condition upon family life, and this has led to an increased demand for resources to support and educate children about dementia, including a growing number of picturebooks. Picturebooks about illnesses such as dementia are likely to be examined, purchased and read by/with an adult, often a child’s parent or carer. This study, therefore, explores the readerly responses of adults who may buy, recommend and read these books with children. Using a focus group methodology, we explore the reactions of adult carers of people living with dementia and healthcare professionals to a range of picturebooks about dementia. The focus group discussions showed that both carers and health professionals supported the books’ use of mechanistic metaphors for explaining dementia to children, but they also recognised the lack of diversity found in the images of people living with dementia. Finally, the participants felt strongly that the emotional effect on the adult reading the picturebook was crucial to the reading experience with the child and indeed to the choice or use of the books at all. Our findings demonstrate the importance of images and emotions in communicating health information to children through picturebooks.