A preschooler pointing to where something hurts. An elementary school student asking why a medicine is needed. A teenager explaining symptoms directly to a pediatrician. Each is practicing a skill that matters throughout life: health literacy.
October is Health Literacy Month, an opportunity to consider how families help children understand their bodies, communicate concerns and participate in their care. These lessons begin long before a child can read a prescription label or schedule an appointment.
For parents, building health literacy means offering clear explanations and gradually giving children opportunities to participate. It also means knowing when to ask the pediatrician to explain something again.
What Is Health Literacy?
Health literacy involves finding, understanding and using health information and services to make health decisions. It includes practical abilities such as describing symptoms, following treatment instructions, asking questions and evaluating information found online.
The responsibility is shared. Healthcare organizations and professionals also have a role in making information and services understandable and accessible. Families should not have to navigate confusing instructions on their own.
For children, health literacy develops through everyday conversations and supported practice. The age groups below offer opportunities to introduce these skills; they are not a checklist of required developmental milestones. Adjust the approach to your child’s communication abilities, understanding and medical needs.
Infants and Toddlers: Birth Through Age 2
Build communication and help caregivers understand the care plan
During infancy, adults manage health information and decisions. The immediate priority is making sure every caregiver understands feeding guidance, medication instructions, follow-up appointments and when to seek medical care.
At appointments, ask for demonstrations when needed. Watching someone measure a medicine or demonstrate a care technique can make instructions easier to apply at home.
As toddlers develop communication skills, everyday routines offer opportunities to introduce simple words for body parts, physical sensations and feelings.
Parents can:
- Name body parts during dressing, bathing and play.
- Help children communicate discomfort through words, pointing, pictures or other methods they use.
- Name emotions without dismissing them: “You look worried,” or “That surprised you.”
- Use short explanations of what is happening: “The doctor is listening to your chest.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics emphasizes that parents help children develop communication skills by listening, responding and naming feelings—even during the toddler years.
Try this: If your toddler points to a sore foot, acknowledge the message: “You are showing me your foot hurts. Let’s look together.”
Preschoolers: Ages 3–5
Explain what will happen and invite questions
Preschoolers benefit from concrete explanations about healthcare. Instead of saying, “The doctor will check everything,” explain, “The doctor will look in your ears and listen to your breathing.”
Books and pretend play can introduce medical equipment and give children a way to express worries. Before a vaccination, explain honestly what they may feel and how you will support them. Avoid promising that a procedure will not hurt.
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta recommends including children in the conversation, encouraging questions and offering appropriate choices during vaccination visits. Medical care should never be presented as punishment for misbehavior.
At this age, useful lessons include:
- Telling a trusted adult when something hurts or feels unusual.
- Asking what an unfamiliar instrument does.
- Learning that checkups also happen when children feel well.
- Understanding that medicine is given for a specific reason and requires adult supervision.
Try this: Before a visit, ask, “What would you like to know about going to the doctor?” A child’s answer may reveal a concern that an adult would not otherwise anticipate.
Early Elementary School: Ages 6–8
Help children describe symptoms and participate in visits
Elementary school offers opportunities to practice communicating directly with the pediatrician. Parents can remain involved while allowing the child to answer an opening question.
For example, before adding details, give your child a chance to explain why they came to the appointment. The AAP encourages families to prepare for visits and communicate questions and concerns openly with the healthcare team.
Practice describing:
- Location: Where does it hurt?
- Timing: When did it begin? Does it come and go?
- Sensation: Does it feel itchy, sore, burning or something else?
- Impact: Does it interfere with eating, sleeping, playing or school?
Children do not need to identify a diagnosis. Their role is to describe their experience as accurately as they can.
This is also an opportunity to explain a child’s own treatment in plain language. If a medicine is prescribed, ask the pediatrician to explain its purpose directly to the child. Continue supervising medication use; understanding a medicine’s purpose does not establish readiness to take it independently.
Try this: Help your child choose one question before the visit, such as, “What should I do if this happens at school?”
Older Elementary School: Ages 9–12
Connect health information with practical decisions
As children become more involved in school, sports and activities, they can practice understanding the health information relevant to their daily lives.
For a child with an ongoing condition, this may include learning the condition’s name, recognizing symptoms discussed in their care plan and identifying which adult to approach for help.
Practical opportunities include:
- Keeping a short list of questions for the next appointment.
- Explaining how symptoms affect school or activities.
- Learning the names and purposes of their own medicines, with supervision.
- Practicing how to tell a teacher, coach or school nurse about a concern.
- Asking the healthcare team to clarify unfamiliar words.
The goal is supported participation. Parents should continue checking understanding and coordinating care rather than assuming that a child who can repeat instructions can apply them independently.
Introduce the difference between a claim and reliable information
Children can also begin examining health messages in advertisements, videos and online searches. Ask who created the message, what evidence supports it and whether someone is selling a product.
The National Library of Medicine recommends checking a health source’s ownership, funding, expert review, supporting information and update date. These questions provide a useful starting point for evaluating online claims together.
Try this: Review a health-related advertisement together. Ask, “What is this asking us to believe, and how could we check it?”
Early Adolescence: Ages 13–15
Practice self-advocacy and make room for private questions
During adolescence, children need increasing opportunities to speak for themselves about physical and emotional health.
Encourage your teen to describe symptoms, ask questions and discuss concerns directly with the pediatrician. Preparing a written list can help them remember topics they find difficult to bring up.
Time alone with the pediatrician is a routine part of adolescent care. It gives teenagers an opportunity to discuss questions they may hesitate to raise in front of a parent. Parents can also have time to share concerns. Ask the clinician to explain confidentiality and its limits so everyone understands how information is handled.
Possible skills to practice include:
- Keeping an accurate medication and allergy list.
- Knowing whom to contact with a health question.
- Explaining a treatment plan in their own words.
- Telling the clinician when a medicine is difficult to take or causes a concern.
- Asking how to get help with persistent stress, anxiety or changes in mood.
Planning for adult healthcare should begin during adolescence. Got Transition, a national health care transition resource, recommends introducing transition guidance around ages 12–14 and building skills over time.
Try this: Before an appointment, ask, “Which parts would you like to explain yourself, and where would you like my help?”
Older Adolescence: Ages 16–18
Rehearse the tasks involved in managing healthcare
Approaching adulthood brings practical responsibilities that require instruction and practice.
With appropriate support, older teenagers can begin learning how to:
- Request an appointment and explain the reason for the visit.
- Locate their clinician’s contact information and insurance details.
- Maintain a medical summary, including conditions, medicines and allergies.
- Request prescription refills before running out.
- Understand follow-up instructions and how test results will be communicated.
- Identify where to seek routine, urgent or emergency care.
- Discuss an eventual transfer to adult healthcare.
Got Transition recommends assessing self-care skills and addressing gaps during the adolescent years. Readiness should guide how responsibilities are shared. Some young people will continue to need substantial assistance, including supported decision-making and accessible communication.
Try this: Have your teen make an appointment request while you are available to help. Review any confusing steps afterward.
Medication Safety Is a Health Literacy Skill for Every Family
Medication instructions combine several pieces of information: the correct product, concentration, amount, timing and duration. Uncertainty about any of these deserves clarification.
For liquid medicines, use the recommended dosing device with milliliter markings. Kitchen spoons are not accurate measuring tools. Ask the pediatrician or pharmacist to demonstrate the dose using the device you will use at home.
Families should also review prescription medicines, over-the-counter products, vitamins and supplements with the healthcare team. When multiple caregivers give medicine, a shared written record can help everyone track what was given and when.
For children, an essential early message is simple: medicine should be taken only with the permission and supervision appropriate to their care plan.
Help Children Become Careful Consumers of Online Health Information
As children search more independently, teach them to pause before accepting or sharing a health claim.
Useful questions include:
- Who wrote or reviewed this information?
- What qualifications are relevant to the topic?
- Does the claim link to supporting evidence?
- When was the information updated?
- Is the message primarily selling something?
- Does it promise a cure or rely on alarming language?
- Does it apply to children of this age and to this particular situation?
Popularity, personal testimonials and professional-looking design do not establish medical accuracy. Starting points include the AAP’s HealthyChildren.org, MedlinePlus and Nemours KidsHealth. Bring claims that could change your child’s treatment to the pediatrician before acting on them.
Leave the Appointment With a Plan You Can Explain
Health literacy matters most when families can use the information after the visit.
Before leaving, make sure you understand:
- 1. What is the concern or diagnosis?
- 2. What should we do at home?
- 3. How should any medicine be given?
- 4. What changes should prompt a call or urgent care?
- 5. When is follow-up needed?
One useful approach is teach-back: explaining the plan in your own words so the clinician can check whether it was communicated clearly. It is a check on the explanation, not a test of the patient or parent.
For example: “Let me make sure I have this right. We will follow these instructions, call if these symptoms develop and return at this time.”
Ask for written instructions, a demonstration or information in your preferred language when needed.
Building Health Understanding With Sandy Springs Pediatrics
Your child’s next appointment is an opportunity to practice one new health skill: naming a concern, asking a question, explaining a symptom or reviewing the care plan.
At Sandy Springs Pediatrics, bring questions about your child’s health and about how to explain that care in a way your child understands. Tell the pediatrician when instructions are unclear or difficult to follow.
Health literacy develops through clear explanations, repeated practice and reliable support. Each conversation gives children another opportunity to understand their health and participate in their care.