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'Old friends': Reading reflects key chapters in seniors' lives
From Western News, April 19, 2018By Aniruddho Chokroborty-Hoque
Dog-eared pages, stacks of magazines and a worn library card can all represent the rich relationship senior Canadians have with their books. And Faculty of Information & Media Studies professor Paulette Rothbauer is using these representations to help change conversations about aging.
For Canada’s elderly, reading improves mental and emotional well-being, lowers anxiety, builds relationships and nurtures social relationships.
Yet reading programs for the elderly almost always focus on reading as bibliotherapy: a way to prevent cognitive decline or to treat mental and psychological disorders.
“They fail to recognize the pleasures of reading that are vital for many older adult readers,” Rothbauer said.
Rothbauer is one of the first researchers in Canada to explore and document – through conversational interviews with Canadian seniors between the ages of 75-90 – the value and meaning they place on reading (continue reading).
