Asthma Education For Kids!
Visual stories help kids learn and remember important information.
Sequential art is a fancy name for comics. When information is conveyed to a reader in a series of related images, it can communicate complex ideas in an easy-to-follow format. For example, comics allow readers to compare visual and narrative elements across space and time. Panels communicate non-verbal cues about pacing and action.
By anthropomorphizing medications into characters with personalities and physical traits directly related to their mechanism of action, understanding can be much more intuitive. For example, Broncho The Bronchodilator is a rescue medication that talks and acts fast, using his lasso to loosen up the muscle bands around the airways. Coltron The Controller is a slow talking robot with a water-canon arm that slowly decreases inflammation over several days. The characters and their actions cannot be confused because they speak, look, act, and attack asthma pathophysiology differently.
From ancient myths to comic books, the battle of good vs. evil is a basic storytelling device. In our stories, the medications are always the good guys, and the triggers are the bad guys.
The comic books, activity pages, asthma action plan, trading cards, videos, stickers, and posters all work together to engage kids and encourage an deeper understanding of asthma.
Kids (and adults!) like stories. Narrative structures help us remember ideas and details. Also, social learning theory shows how modeling behavior through narrative is a useful tool in health education.
Many studies have show that well-designed combinations of images and text help patients understand health information better than text alone. Many newer studies also support the idea that narrative delivery can be better than information presented without a narrative.
