The dictionary contains words used when talking about health (in an alphabetical order), explanations with pictures that represent them and information such as the grammatical category of the words (whether they are masculine or feminine nouns), information on how certain words have been created, relationships between the words in the dictionary, or information in the contexts in which we use them. It also contains an atlas with 8 drawings of the human body, as well as other terms, and interactive activities for you to explore the dictionary in a fun way.

For each word you are given the grammatical category (in Spanish it can be a masculine or feminine noun), an explanation of the meaning (i.e. what it is, what it looks like, what it is used for, who uses it, etc.) which is accompanied by a drawing made by a boy or a girl to help understand the meaning of the word. On some occasions, there is also information to help you find out in which communicative situations we typically use that term (for example, lipothymia in popular terms known as ‘faint’, or the word ‘sore throat’ explained as ‘When our throat hurts because we have an infection, doctors use tonsillitis, which is a specialised word’) or the origin of a word (for example, otitis ‘comes from the Greek ancient ot-, which means “ear” and -itis, which means “inflammation”’). On the other hand, information is given to clarify certain ideas that may not be true, for example, Down’s syndrome, for some, is not a disease, and overweight and obesity should not be confused).

When a word can be said in different ways, they are all collected and explained in which cases one can be used and in which cases another can be used, such as, for example, bruise and haematoma, or cephalea and headache. The explanation of what it means is given only in one word, which is usually the one used by doctors, and all the others refer to it (for example, in headache it says ‘See cephalea’).

In every definition, the words that are also explained elsewhere in the dictionary are highlighted in navy blue, and the words illustrated in one of the drawings in the atlas are highlighted in purple.

The experts have used understandable language in their definitions and, have often used words that the children used in their definitions. In addition, all the specialised words from medicine used in the definition are also explained in the dictionary or indicated in the atlas; in some cases, we have chosen to explain the meaning of a word within the definition (e.g. in the word plaster we have explained the meaning of splints, instead of the Spanish word parafarmacia within the word farmacia, as in English it is not a common word). The experts have followed a definition model that includes sentences that are specially addressed to you. Sometimes they have added information to undo misunderstandings that they have detected in the explanations by the children, adding a didactic purpose. For each definition the experts have selected one or two drawings.

In addition, we commissioned Naia Oliver, a sixth-form pupil at the school Annexa Joan Puigbert, to draw an atlas of the human body and a first-aid kit to complete the basic terms of medicine in a visual way.

All in all, we believe that we are offering you an original dictionary, as it has been adapted for primary school children, it is based on the accumulated knowledge of 8-10-year olds and it is a thematically specialised school dictionary.

My most sincere thanks to M. Teresa Cabré; her expertise made me propose a work in specialised school lexicography that was able to respect the Principle of adequacy proposed in her Teoría Comunicativa de la Terminología (Communicative Theory of Terminology). This assumption represented an important methodological challenge in the conception of Mi primer diccionario de ciencia (My First Dictionary of Science), as well as in the elaboration of the Primer diccionario de medicina ilustrado (First Illustrated Dictionary of Medicine).

The team of expert linguists consisted of:

Mariona Arnau, Aida Celemín, Nuria Clapés, Julia Flores, Laura Llort, Marina Maimó, Lidia Ramos, Marta Roviralta, Carla Solé, Claudia Tarrago, Yingfeng Xu, students and active collaborators in the project. I would like to thank them for their interest in the tasks of selection, automation and the first drafts of the definitions. They were just starting out in the field of research and have done so with great aptitude and vitality.

Jorge M. Porras-Garzón and Laia Vidal-Sabanés, who participated with great enthusiasm when energising the automation team, processing the data and elaborating definitions. They were one of the main driving forces behind this project.

Silvia Llach and Silvia Grisó, who revised each definition with a critical and expert linguistic eye. Ona Doménech, who participated in the final reading of the materials and provided wise advice. We followed her ingenious recommendations, when making some final decisions. We would also like to thank Nuria Clapés and Lidia Ramos, students of the last year of Translation and Interpreting at Pompeu Fabra University, who translated with special care the first text into Spanish. And Estela Servente, an expert and efficient translator from the Colegio de Traductores de Buenos Aires (School of translators of Buenos Aires), who revised the translation and adapted it to Argentinean Spanish.