Seniors with dementia or Alzheimers, have great benefits from stimulating, interactive activities, that are fun and creative, there is a great benefit from connection and fulfillment with these activities that we have listed below.
Knowing what your loved one is interested in, will help you to decide what activities would be best and most enjoyable for them. It is also a great way to spend some time with your loved one with these interactive activities, that you can both enjoy.
Activities For Seniors With Dementia
activities-for-seniors-with-dimentiaKnowing what activities they can still do, can be a challenge, so it is important that the activities that you choose are based on their abilities.
Having knowledge of the senior’s past passions and interests can help you to decide what would be most enjoyable for them. Reminiscing on past activities can also be a family event, to keep as many people in the family still connected to their loved ones.
Reminiscence therapy uses sensory or visual cues from the past to help seniors reconnect with their memories, this can also be therapeutic for the family too.
Photos from their past can help them reminisce about the past, this also helps to reduce confusion, instead of asking the question, one can show the photo, and it will bring back memories.
Failure-free activities are important for seniors with dementia, this will increase the feeling of self-worth, and just like us, seniors with dementia also want a sense of accomplishment.
Choosing activities based on the senior’s cognitive ability is important, to still promote their self-image with the right sensory activities.
Technology-based activities for seniors with dementia can provide mind-stimulating activities, and it has a wide range of health benefits for seniors.
Here is our list of senior activities with dementia, with Loving Assisted Living, we are here to help you to find the best assisted living home for your loved one, we also provide memory care home referrals too.
Knitting or crochet
Knitting or Crochet can be a wonderful pastime Let them feel the weight of the quilt and the yarn. They may still be able to crochet or knit a little bit, even if they have serious memory or cognitive deficits.
Experiment with Music
For a senior who was musical or loved music, listening or playing music can be very therapeutic. For seniors with mild cognitive decline, musical ability might outlast other memory functions. For those with more advanced impairment, nursery rhymes, maracas, and tambourines can still encourage creative expression.
Painting visual expression
A senior who liked to draw or paint in the past may like to paint and draw, they are ways to express feelings safely and with creativity. Encourage using bold, bright colors on big surfaces. Rolls of butcher paper enable seniors with dementia to create without encountering the stress of defined spaces.
Create sensory experiences with clay or dough
Working with slippery clay or play-dough is a way for seniors with cognitive decline to benefit from tactile stimulation and creativity.
Photos and creativity via collages
Scan or print family photos, they can also use images from magazines, and try to use things that they used to be interested in. Let your family member with dementia arrange and rearrange the elements to create pictures or scrapbook pages.
Photo albums
Photo albums are a great way to stimulate past memories with photos from your loved one’s childhood or young adulthood that can bring back favorite memories. This may also stimulate your loved ones to talk about their past.
Watch old movies and TV shows
Watching old films or tv shows that they used to like, will also promote mental stimulation, this can also be a fun family activity, which is also important for your loved one to have the family that they love around them.
Listen to music and sing
Music can awaken the brain, and stimulate it with memories that songs bring with it, it can be a rich treasure chest of memories, according to the nonprofit group Music and Memory.
Looking at old magazines
Looking at old magazines from when they were younger, will also bring a sense of comfort. Try to find original copies or reprints of magazines they enjoyed in their younger years.
Fold laundry
Folding laundry can stimulate the brain, with the old smells of the detergent, this can help bring back old memories, and the actual repeated motion of folding can be very therapeutic.
This is a familiar activity that most seniors have done, but it is important to just do easy items, such as towels or t-shirts, do not do complicated items.
Simulate handy tasks
If your loved one use to like to tinker with things, little projects could be beneficial, little painting, or putting together PVC pipes, could be fun little projects for them. Play tools are also helpful for seniors with dementia.
Untie knots
Untieing loose knots on some rope might be beneficial for some seniors, but make sure that the knots are not too tight, as this will be difficult for them to undo.
Do a puzzle
Choose a puzzle with large, tactile pieces. Wooden color or shape puzzles help with matching and are fail-safe, make sure that it is not a complicated puzzle.
Trigger Smells
Stop and smell the roses (or coffee, fresh-cut grass, or warm bread)
Studies suggest smells trigger more vivid emotional memories than images, according to Harvard scientists. A familiar smell such as laundry, flowers, or freshly baked cookies — can elicit positive memories and emotions from their past.
Have a taste of history
Like smells, tastes can help to bring back emotions and memories. Your favorite chocolate chip cookies could bring back childhood memories; a sip of instant coffee could recall quiet, early mornings at home.
Feel textures
Different textures can provide some sensory stimulation, as well as memory cues. If your loved one is a pet lover, consider the soft fur of an animal.
If they liked to garden, suggest touching damp soil or leaves. Textures can also be used for different types of activities — put together a bag of fabrics or blocks to be sorted by touch.
Explore Internet live streams
You can use internet live streams to help stimulate a place that your loved one your to get you or was interested in. There are many art museums, zoos our nature preserves that provide this. This can provide great visual stimulation.
Use Google Earth
Google Earth allows users to upload photos from across the globe. If there’s a place your loved one loves or used to visit, you could use Google Earth to visit it.
Family video tablet Or digital picture frame for dementia patients at home
One can do a family video, and have it set up on a tablet or use a digital frame, and upload family photos and memories, so your loved one can remember moments and be stimulated by the photos.
Digital fame is great because multiple family members can add photos to it, so they can add what images they think that their loved ones will think that they will enjoy.
We hope that you have enjoyed our activities guide for seniors with dementia. If you need any help to find great memory care for them, we are here for you.
Having a large referral network, we will walk you through the process of finding the right home for your loved one, without any confusion.