Cognitive book created for people with dementia by Hertfordshire author
The book looks back at the history of the Beatles
A new book designed specifically for people with dementia, and written by a Hertfordshire-based author, was released this week.
The book, Looking back at... The Beatles, reads the history of the Beatles, with each page telling a short story in the timeline of their career.
The concept behind it was to create a full sensory experience with a soft and colourful cover, illustrations and large text throughout, and an audiobook read by no other than actor Bill Nighy.
The idea for this book came to author and founder of newly-formed Cognitive Books, Matt Singleton, from to his father, Brian, who was diagnosed with dementia in 2017 and who started to lose his passion for reading as his cognitive abilities declined.
Mr Singleton said: "My father stopped reading, and this is the thinking behind Cognitive Books, it's to maintain hobbies as long as possible even if it is in a reduced way."
"We've spoken to countless amount of people with dementia and we started to understand their needs."
"It's designed to bring joy to people living with dementia, and every single facet of it has been worked on and developed with people living with dementia."
While people living with dementia generally still enjoy reading, carrying a story through an entire book can be difficult and frustrating.
The idea was to divide the story into three parts; the full book tells one story, the history of the Beatles, within that story is a shorter one on each page, bringing a specific period in the Beatles' timeline to life, and each of these pages is summarised alongside illustrations to a single sentence.
This was largely done to help people at different stages of dementia follow the story being told.
Mr Singleton said: "Largely reading is shown to be very positive, there's lots of research to demonstrate that staying socially active is very important, and that's one of the things that it's designed to do."
With that in mind, the audio version compliments each page, with parallels and prompts between the music, the words and the illustration, and brought to life by a familiar voice on an underlying bed of Beatles songs.
Actor Bill Nighy, who provides the voiceover for the audiobook, said: “I was grateful to be given an opportunity to help in any small way with this dreadful condition that afflicts so many of us directly or indirectly."
Mr Singleton added: "I think Bill's a very recognisable name, universally, for adults and children, so I think he was a perfect choice for us."
"Bill is an incredibly professional person who delivers things so beautifully, and to read along with Bill is a pleasure for anyone."
Cognitive Books is one of the groundbreaking products Alzheimer’s Society has invested in to directly benefit people living with dementia as part of the charity’s Accelerator Programme.
This project is one of many designed to support people to boost new dementia products and innovations, delivering help to people living with dementia.
Morven Lean, Alzheimer's Society's Innovation Programme Manager, said: "Because of some of the symptoms associated with dementia like memory loss, difficulty concentrating, and perception challenges, it can be really difficult for some people to continue doing the things that they love."
"A product like Cognitive Books is so important because it helps people living with dementia to continue doing their hobbies and enjoying life."
"Reading can also help with memory by keeping the brain active."
You can find out more about the charity on their website, and you can find the book on the Cognitive Books website.