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Inessential Things: Poems and Pictures
When someone has dementia, traditional books can become incomprehensible and meaningless. This title from the popular range of Pictures to Share books is designed to be accessible and entertaining for anyone with earlier stage dementia who may enjoy poetry and images that are sad, inspirational and comforting and need a prompt to help them talk about it. The range of beautiful and powerful pictures and short texts combines the magic of poetry with a selection of beautiful paintings and photography. All the images are powerful and easy to understand, and prompt lots of memories and discussion between those with Alzheimer's or other dementia and their family, friends and carers. Even when people with dementia can no longer hold a conversation they will enjoy looking through the book and studying the pages. Arranged in a clear and easy to understand format.
58 pages, Hardcover
Published August 1, 2015
2 people want to read
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January 22, 2019
This book was brilliant for my father when he had dementia in the last year of his life. The book is not just an ordinary picture book, it is designed with certain principles in mind...
If zero-short term memory is the situation, sharing a book which draws on long-term memory - sometimes surprisingly intact long after the capacity to make new memories is gone - can be a satisfying activity. Inessential Things is made by a publishing company in the UK that publishes picture books specifically for people with dementia. I bought this one with poetry for my father when he was 91: it had poems (or excerpts) that he’d learned at school in the 1930s, all published in large print on a single page and accompanied by relevant photos from the 1930s in the UK, e.g. a carpet of daffodils next to Wordsworth’s ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud.’ This would be no use for anyone unless he/she had a UK childhood too, but Pictures to Share have other ones perhaps more suitable.
See https://picturestoshare.co.uk/pages/info
It was expensive to import to Australia, but every day is a new day for people with dementia – so you only need one well-chosen book!
This list of books here at GR
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...
includes titles are children’s books which while they might be ok in some situations, they are not designed on the same principle and their presence in this list shows, unfortunately, that many well-intentioned people simply do not understand the needs of people with dementia. Lizzie Nonsense, which is a lovely book I know from reading it to my students, is a perfect accompaniment to reading Henry Lawson's The Drover’s Wife with students because the pictures show a woman pioneer and her child. But no aged person today remembers a 19th century pioneering childhood, nor is the small font suitable. What’s needed is small quantities of text in a large font, large uncluttered images, and crucially, images that tap into the childhood of the person with dementia.
The well-designed books such as those from Pictures to Share continue to be useful when the ability to recognise family photos and conversation is difficult. My father loved to have me sitting beside him sharing the book: it brought memories (for both of us) of when he used to read to me as a child.
If zero-short term memory is the situation, sharing a book which draws on long-term memory - sometimes surprisingly intact long after the capacity to make new memories is gone - can be a satisfying activity. Inessential Things is made by a publishing company in the UK that publishes picture books specifically for people with dementia. I bought this one with poetry for my father when he was 91: it had poems (or excerpts) that he’d learned at school in the 1930s, all published in large print on a single page and accompanied by relevant photos from the 1930s in the UK, e.g. a carpet of daffodils next to Wordsworth’s ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud.’ This would be no use for anyone unless he/she had a UK childhood too, but Pictures to Share have other ones perhaps more suitable.
See https://picturestoshare.co.uk/pages/info
It was expensive to import to Australia, but every day is a new day for people with dementia – so you only need one well-chosen book!
This list of books here at GR
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...
includes titles are children’s books which while they might be ok in some situations, they are not designed on the same principle and their presence in this list shows, unfortunately, that many well-intentioned people simply do not understand the needs of people with dementia. Lizzie Nonsense, which is a lovely book I know from reading it to my students, is a perfect accompaniment to reading Henry Lawson's The Drover’s Wife with students because the pictures show a woman pioneer and her child. But no aged person today remembers a 19th century pioneering childhood, nor is the small font suitable. What’s needed is small quantities of text in a large font, large uncluttered images, and crucially, images that tap into the childhood of the person with dementia.
The well-designed books such as those from Pictures to Share continue to be useful when the ability to recognise family photos and conversation is difficult. My father loved to have me sitting beside him sharing the book: it brought memories (for both of us) of when he used to read to me as a child.
Displaying 1 of 1 review