The Child’s World of Illness: The Development of Health and Illness Behaviour

Through an exploration of the child’s world of illness, this book discusses the languages of illness that we use to present our discomforts to others. It looks at how illness concepts are introduced to children, how germ rationales are incorporated into the socialization of children, and how a particular morality about health and illness is expressed. In addition to this analysis of the social context within which the childrens’ views are developing, the book presents the childrens’ own views from three years old up to thirteen. The consequences of the understanding gained about how children develop their illness languages are that refreshing new approaches to consultations with children and new emphases on health education are opened up. This book persuades the reader to look more closely at the language of illness, allowing a reappraisal of medical practice, school health programs and class teaching, health education, and even the differences in health among the social classes.