World Book Day at Mayfield View

World Book day is celebrated annually on March 2nd and this year the emphasis is on making it YOUR day. The World Book Day charity aimed to get more children from lower-income backgrounds and harder to reach communities involved.

Many of us enjoy reading and escaping into a different world with new ideas, however, for individuals with dementia, reading can present some challenges. This may be due to issues with sight, interpreting visual information or issues concentrating and following the plot. At the bottom of this post, we discuss what you can do to help a loved one with dementia continue to enjoy reading.

World Book Day at Mayfield View

In order to support our residents who may not be able to enjoy the pleasure of reading any more, our Wellbeing & Activities Team at Mayfield View organised a full day of activities to celebrate World Book Day, focusing specifically on celebrating world-famous author, Roald Dahl.

Residents were encouraged to talk about their favourite Roald Dahl stories which prompted lots of memories from their childhoods. We loved discussing all about the different books and learning lots of fun and exciting facts about Roald Dahl.

Oompa loompas visited residents with a ‘Roald Dahl’ inspired trolly full of treats and food inspired by the author. We tucked into some pic and mix as well as the famous Chocolate cake from the book Matilda – a favourite for many of our residents. This was shortly followed by a trip to our cinema for residents who wanted to watch the original film Willy Wonka.

Everyone had a wonderful day reminiscing and enjoying our World Book Day celebrations.

Wonka bars were left on each community for residents to open and see who won a golden ticket!

What can you do to help a loved one with dementia continue to enjoy reading?

• Talk to them about what books they used to read or about any books that they have memories of reading.
• Read new, and familiar, books to them. This can be a nice activity for younger children to do if the individual has grand children.
• If they find it difficult to concentrate, try shorter stories and picture books. These can start conversations and evoke memories for them.
• If the individual is unable to read themselves, you could encourage ‘Talking Books’.
• There are a growing number of books that have been written by people with dementia which can be inspiring and reassuring for all those affected.