Plain Language Pediatrics: Health Literacy Strategies and Communication Resources for Common Pediatric Topics

An essential tool to help improve communication between pediatrician and patient or family, Plain Language Pediatrics offers a framework for implementing a plain language approach to communication in your office, and provides specific steps you can take to ensure the information you present to patients and their parents is clearly understood. Included are 25 reproducible plain language patient education handouts—in English and Spanish! Plain Language Pediatrics combines health literacy and plain language principles to present information in a way that makes it as easy as possible for everyone to understand, and applies these principles to a variety of ambulatory acute, chronic, and preventive conditions. Common pediatric topics such as asthma, ADHD, ear infections, and medical dosing are addressed in detail. This robust resource is divided into 2 parts. Part I explores limited health literacy, including the scope of the problem, how it affects children in particular, and how health care providers can address and overcome health literacy issues with patients and their caregivers. At the heart of Part II is a new series of 25 reproducible patient education handouts in English and Spanish that feature need-to-know information up front, health care terms and jargon, practical pronunciation guides, low reading levels, user-friendly layouts, and simple, purposeful illustrations.