A daughter shares how she ‘broke through the fog’ of her parent’s dementia with reading
Jo Glanville has shared her experiences of reading to her parents with dementia, describing it as ‘the key to breaking through the fog’.
Jo’s article was published in The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/01/reading-key-breaking-through-fog-parents-dementia and in it she says of her father’s dementia:
“There appears to be some kind of motor in the brain that enables us to connect with the outside world, which his illness had destroyed. It was only when the family and his care worker made the effort to engage with him, asking questions, encouraging him to communicate, that he would begin to be able to connect. And reading to him was one of the key ways that enabled us to do that. It was a bridge to the world that revealed some of his sophisticated cognitive function was entirely unaffected by dementia.”
Jo continues:
“I have learned that one must never assume that because someone with a degenerative illness is silent or uncommunicative that means they are unable to understand what is going on around them or are incapable of engaging.”
Jo’s article has received supportive feedback from other family carers which can be read here: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/feb/06/people-with-dementia-are-still-people-with-joys-and-interests-of-their-own
Dementia Community ran a webinar in November 2025 about books for people with dementia. You can watch the recording here: https://youtu.be/Mko85fQ-2B0?si=B4KcHBW_QMjU2e1O