About the Book
This 64-page, large print book provides dementia-friendly adaptations of Katherine Mansfield's best loved short stories. The poetic voice of Mansfield is retained and the stories brought to life with illustrations by by Cézanne, Van Gogh, Klimt, Macke and Modigliani. It has been included in Dovetale Press's series of four adaptations of classic novels and a poetry collection, created for people living with dementia.
People living with dementia have difficulties reading standard texts because of problems with memory, which can be particularly frustrating if reading was a favourite pastime for them pre-dementia. Specific challenges that they face in reading are daunting amounts of text, fonts which are too small or not distinct enough, insufficient white space on a page, and difficulty in following the thread of a plot. It can be challenging to understand a story if sentences are very long, if there is a lot of descriptive 'padding', or if pronouns are sometimes separated from the nouns to which they refer by a lengthy sentence or a page turn. However, Dovetale Press editors Dr Sally Rimkeit, a psychogeriatrician, and Dr Gillian Claridge, an applied linguist, believe that people living with dementia do not need to be deprived of the joy of reading simply because they can no longer tackle standard books.
In the Dovetale Press series, Drs Rimkeit and Claridge have addressed these challenges for readers with memory impairment. They have created versions of the classics in which text not essential to the stories has been removed, shortening them considerably and clarifying the plot. The books are lighter than standard novels and easy to hold, thus manageable by the physically frail. The referents in the stories have been made very clear, and the pages are designed so that each double page can be read as a single entity, which means that if a person cannot remember what happened on the previous pages, the reading can still be a pleasurable experience. In order to prompt imperfect memories, there are 'cast lists' for each novel, and where appropriate a summary is provided after each chapter.
Although parts of the texts have been cut, this has in no way dumbed down the rich, vibrant language of the novels, and they retain as far as possible the authors' original language. The poems in the poetry collection are not adapted, but have been selected from poetry likely to be known to the intended audience, or to appeal to them. All the books are enhanced by beautiful illustrations, some of which were included in the original publications.
About the Author :
Gill currently lectures part-time in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) at a tertiary institute in New Zealand, where her research focus is on reading. She has taught and learned languages for many years, and is an IELTS examiner, an APTIS examiner and also a moderator for Trinity College London's Certificate of TESOL qualification. She has a Masters degree in Russian Language and Literature from St Andrews University, Scotland, a post-graduate Certificate of Education specializing in language teaching from St Martin's College, Lancaster, UK, and a Doctorate in Applied Linguistics from the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, where she won the Victoria University English Speaking Union Award in 2011. She spent 5 years as a Dean of the Faculty of International Studies at the International Pacific College in Palmerston North, New Zealand, before retiring from that post to spend more time with her grand-children, and on her work with Sally, producing books adapted for people living with dementia. Sally is a Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist working at the Mental Health of Older Persons Service (MHSOP) at Capital and Coast District Health Board. She is a co-convenor of the Stage 1 Psychiatric Training Programme for the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP), through University of Otago, Wellington campus. As a Senior Research Fellow, she is clinical lead for an international programme on the value of facilitated book groups for people living with dementia. She and linguist Dr Gillian Claridge have published five dementia-friendly books, adapted from classic literature for use in this programme and for individual sale. After completing a qualitative study on how people living with younger onset dementia view facing aged care, she is the founding Board Member of the Younger Onset Dementia Australasian Trust (YODAT), a charitable trust developing age appropriate services for people living with younger onset dementia. She contributed to a late-life suicide research project, through University of Auckland, with results published with merit in the International Psychogeriatric Association Journal. She was born in Oregon, USA and moved to New Zealand in 1987. She enjoys time with her twin grand-daughters each week.
Review :
Below are comments made by an activity coordinator at a Bupa Care Home in New Zealand after reading the Dovetale Press adaptation of A Christmas Carol with a group of residents living with dementia. This activity was part of an international study to see if reading improved their quality of life.
She says: The book was edited so that it could be read and discussed in two sessions lasting between 45 - 60 minutes. It had a list of characters at the beginning, and at the end of each chapter there was a summary to remind people what it was all about.
Even though it was substantially shortened, it still held the essence and original language of the story, allowing the emotions and drama to come through to the readers. It also had a rich selection of illustrations to add to the reading experience.
Residents were invited to share the reading out loud of the stories and poems with the facilitators, and it was interesting to hear how different people read a story. I felt I knew who had read a great deal to children and grandchildren!
Reading A Christmas Carol led to comments being made about how times have changed, both in the way people talk to each other, and the differences in society and status. There were lots of reminiscences about childhood and early schooldays, some enjoyable, but some rather more poignant memories.
Once the ice had been broken and the first comment made, there was no problem in each of the residents contributing to the discussions, and certainly, one anecdote led to another very easily. When I asked a question of each respective participant, it was pleasing to note that much thought went into the answer, and I could see that memories were being 'trawled' for the best response.
A rather lovely comment was made outside the reading session, where one person said that despite knowing another for quite some time, how much more appreciation was felt for this person following the reading sessions, and how important it was to have had an insight into that person's life.
At the end of the study, I certainly had the impression that a regular reading and discussion group should be incorporated into our activities calendar. The enjoyment of sharing the reading was very apparent, but I think more importantly, the stimulation of memories and discussions in a friendly group will lead to closer friendships and more meaningful social interactions.
