Educating Children Through the Art of Storytelling Using a Medically-Informed Children's Book

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how children learn about a health topic from an interactive reading session. Due to the large number of children with allergies, the specific topic chosen for this research study was peanut allergies. The goal of the project was to assess how students learn from a children's book.

For the purposes of the research project, Vollmer wrote, illustrated, and published the children's book "A Party Without Peanuts: How Food Allergies Affect Friends". The children's book was then read in a group setting in third-grade classrooms and a question-and-answer session was held. The students were assessed through both pre- and post-read surveys to evaluate knowledge gained during the session. Specific topics discussed include allergies, anaphylaxis, preventative measures, and treatments.

There was a total of 65 pre- and post- read surveys matched in data analysis. There was a significant increase from a pre-read score of 5.38 (76.92%) to a post-read score of 6.38 (91.21%) for the overall survey with a mean difference of 1.0. In addition, each individual question was assessed and it was found that 4 of the 7 questions demonstrated a significant change in percent of students who answered correctly following the reading.

The overall findings of the study demonstrated that through interactive reading sessions students significantly increased their scores between pre- and post-read questionnaires. This study serves to encourage the use of children's books as an educational tool for young learners.