Friday, 21 October 2016

How children can help with dementia care

Often children are told not to bother someone with dementia and left behind on visits, but in some instances the innocence of children can teach others how to have fun with someone that has Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

Being around young generations can be enjoyable for someone with memory loss. It is widely known that someone with Alzheimer’s or dementia will lose their visual memory but will retain the memory of emotion. When a young child interacts with someone with memory decline, it could help evoke childhood or parenting memories.

Try and incorporate some of the following childhood activities in a visit with a grandparent with dementia.

• Do a simple puzzle or play a fun board game that an elderly person may have played when they were younger such as Snakes and Ladders or Ludo, or choose an easy game that the child can teach them how to play.
• Read a story together. It really doesn’t matter who does the reading, the grandparent or the child but the key is to choose well-known stories that someone with dementia might recognise such as old fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood or The Three Little Pigs.
• Get the child to take the family member for a walk around the garden or park. Give the child a box or jar and a list of items to collect such as a yellow flower, a brown leaf, a smooth stone. These can be collected and discussed together.
• Ask a child to show someone with dementia old photo albums of the family, particularly those of the person with memory loss. This may help evoke memories from a time before the diagnosis.
• If the child plays a musical instrument or does karate or dancing, then ask them to do a quick recital or demonstration of their skills.
• Get out the paintbrushes or crayons and let the kids and elderly have fun with crafts together.

Some children are understandably anxious about what is happening to a grandparent with dementia, they may be fearful of how to speak and interact with them. It is far more important and beneficial to both grandparent and child to help a child develop an understanding of what is happening rather than avoid it.

More in this Category: