Children's Picture Books about Dementia

[gridge]

Hi there,

My name's Grace and I'm currently studying a Masters degree in Illustration. I'm currently researching children's picture books about dementia and ultimately aim to create my own picture book for my project.

I'm looking to gather thoughts and opinions about children's picture books about dementia from individual's who have people with dementia in their family and who also potentially have young children. Any opinions would be super helpful for my research and project.

Here are some initial questions for my research:

For individuals who have a loved one with dementia, do you also have young children in your family?

Do you know of any children's picture books about dementia?

How do you think that children's picture books can help children to learn about and understand dementia?

Thank you!

Grace

May I answer from the perspective of somebody who has worked with dementia patients for several years?

Yes, very many will have much loved grandchildren or great grandchildren.

Yes I think a sensitive & well written explanation of dementia would be handy for families to read with their children. The behaviour that dementia will sometimes cause can be scary, confusing & often distressing for children. Anything that helps with understanding has to be a good thing (it may also help some adults understand better too!)

To answer your questions:

1. Yes
2. No
3. Absolutely.

If you are studying for an MA, why not gather your data properly and include the relevant details of where you are studying, ethical issues etc?

Hi there,

This thread was just to gather general responses and see if there was anyone on here who would like to share their opinion. Ethics forms and issues have been properly completed and considered for individuals who I have interviewed personally on a one-to-one basis thus far. I'm studying at the University of Derby.

Thanks

@CoffeeRunner

May I answer from the perspective of somebody who has worked with dementia patients for several years?

Yes, very many will have much loved grandchildren or great grandchildren.

Yes I think a sensitive & well written explanation of dementia would be handy for families to read with their children. The behaviour that dementia will sometimes cause can be scary, confusing & often distressing for children. Anything that helps with understanding has to be a good thing (it may also help some adults understand better too!)

Of course - any opinions are welcome!

I completely agree. What do you think would be the most important aspects of a book in order to teach and allow children to understand dementia? For example, the way the story would include symptoms of dementia or maybe a child's feelings about it.

What do you think would be most difficult for a child to understand about dementia?

We have someone in our family with dementia (fairly early stages for now) and young children.

We don't have any books but it could be something useful to us as things progress as this person lives with someone we visit often.

The dementia is something I feel confident and comfortable to discuss with them but I think sometimes books are great for helping the children understand that this is "normal" and happens to other families too.

It's especially useful for us if the illustrations and plot are beautiful and engaging too, rather than just informative/clinical e.g we really like Paper Dolls as a story but it was also helpful to broach conversations about a death in the family.

@gridge have you ever heard of the GEMS system of staging dementia? If not, having a Google of that might help. It explains why changes happen in a lovely, relatable way.

“I’m still me, but different” is an excellent starting point. I would think explaining why dementia patients may behave in certain ways would be very helpful to children. As it’s the unexpected behaviours they are often frightened or upset by.