b'speech and language skills, promotes creativity, if something presented in the book wasand sparks the imagination, improves social uncomfortable, not to ignore addressing it forand cognitive skills, and helps children future books, but to get ideas on ways to presentacademically. Additionally, when a parent reads the content in an improved way. The ndingswiththeirchild,itpromotesastronger overwhelmingly indicated the content in theparent-child relationship lled with nurturant book did not present specic information thatcaregiving, and helps the child feel loved. was uncomfortable to the participants.The ndings from our study exceeded our Participants indicated what did make themexpectations. The outcomes indicated the uncomfortable was that there is no cure, butparents who ordered the book did so to help this was a realization made from reading theeducate their children about multiple sclerosis, book, and not explicitly stated in the book.to help children better understand why mom One participant felt the character of momor dad feel the way they do, why they can or going from a wheelchair to walking with acannot do various activities, and overall to cane was unrealistic. However, one thing wehelp them explain MS in child friendly terms know about MS is that a relapse can attackto ease their fears.our bodies, robbing us of some abilities, butFor the participants in the study, the book these abilities are ones we can sometimes getmet 100 percent of their expectations, made back with time, healing, and physical therapy.themfeelbetteraboutconversationsthey Also, the use of a wheelchair does not necessarilyhad with their children, and eased fears MS mean that a person cannot walk; rather theybrought to the kids. One participant wrote, I may need to rely on the wheelchair in order towas pleasantly surprised with the content, help with balance issues, strength, and so on. andeaseofsharingthebook withmy11- Participantsinthestudyindicatedtheyear-old son. book was easy to read to their children, andtheirParticipants indicated one of their favorite children responded positively. The participantsparts of the book was the parent-child indicated the book increased the number ofrelationship presented by the characters. One questions their children had about MS andparticipant said, I enjoyed the relationship started a conversation with the reader. Onebetween the mom and the child. It was special reader said, My child asked a lot of greatand they supported one another.Others said questions, that I could easily respond to. Im justthey liked the entire book from beginning to one happy person after reading this!Finally,end, and it allowed my kids to be so involved. the parent resource section was well-received,Another piece that was enjoyed by participants with one participant stating, I felt like thewas the language used. The language kept parent resource section was thorough, whilethe children engaged and interested, written being general enough. in laymens terms. Finally, the illustrations Overall, the ndings from our study werewere a very big hit. amazing. There were suggestions of how toWhile we wanted to know what participants improve the book (e.g. translate to othercelebrated about the book, we also needed to languages, which weve done). A commentknow what made them uncomfortable. MS from one participant really summed up theis frightening and so we needed to know results of this study:35 msfocusmagazine.org'