“Health for kids”. Multimodal resources for popularising health knowledge on websites for children

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to shed light on the ways in which verbal as well as visual elements are exploited in the explanation of health concepts on two websites expressly designed for children aged between 4 and 12, whose express aim is to popularise health knowledge. The two websites under investigation are approached taking into account multimodality. This provides instruments suitable for identifying cases where the visual mode interacts with the verbal mode to support popularisation. The analysis shows how the verbal mode exploits the visual mode to render information more accessible to children and contribute to their understanding. Through ‘human-like characters’, the images relate to real-life experience. They enhance the information transmitted and complete it with realistic details.