22 ACTIVITIES for people with ALZHEIMER

Alzheimer's dementia is a neurodegenerative disease that causes deterioration of cognitive functions and loss of autonomy in patients who suffer from it. This loss of autonomy will require that care increase as the disease progresses.

In this aspect, the figure of the caregiver is crucial, the person who is going to be in charge of providing support and covering the needs that the person with Alzheimer's requires.

If you are a caregiver, spend a lot of time with people with Alzheimer's, or are simply curious to know what kind of activities can be carried out with these patients, continue reading this Psychology-Online article in which you we propose 21 activities for people with Alzheimer's: exercises, games and crafts.

Index

1. Alzheimer's Dementia
2. Listen music and sing
3. Identify sounds
4. View old photographs
5. Watch videos
6. Making a family tree
7. Remembrance of significant dates
8. Calendar and spatial and temporal orientation
9. Activities to work on temporal orientation
10. Planning activities
11. Make the shopping list
12. Housework
13. Classification Tasks
14. Paper and pencil tasks
15. Comprehensive reading
16. Color
17. Puzzles
18. Deck of cards
19. I see I see
20. Sayings
21. Ball
22. Tactile stimulation
23. Olfactory stimulation

It must be taken into account that to diagnose a dementia o “Major Neurocognitive Disorder” (name that appears in the DSM-5 diagnostic classification of the American Psychiatric Association; and ICD-11 of the World Health Organization) there must be a deterioration in cognitive function (in one or more areas) and that this deterioration has a negative influence on the autonomy of the patient.

In the case of Alzheimer's disease one of the affected areas must necessarily be memory and learning. However, this disease follows a progressive pattern of deterioration. Therefore, all functions will end up deteriorating and the person will lose autonomy and their dependence on the caregiver will increase.

Therefore, when carrying out activities with these patients, we must always take into account the phase of deterioration in which they are and adapt or modify the activities to be carried out. Next, we suggest exercises, games and crafts for Alzheimer's patients.

Both listening to music and singing is an activity, not only fun, but also provokes positive emotions for the person with Alzheimer's. In musical activities for people with Alzheimer's, it is recommended to use songs associated with pleasant stages of their life. Therefore, music is one of the most used resources in people with Alzheimer's.

You can help yourself with a device where you can search and play audio. The variety of sounds can be enormous. Try, for example, with sounds of:

• Animals: put on the moo of a cow and ask what animal it is. If he has difficulties, give him a choice between two options "is this a cow or a rooster?".
• Musical instruments: Is this or this other more serious? Which one do you like more? Do you think it is a large instrument or a small instrument ...
• Voices: Is it the voice of an adult or a boy or a girl?

Photographs evoke memories of the person's life. You can review personal photos or photos of places that have a relevant meaning. Ask them about the moment of the photo, the way they dress they appear, the activities they may be taking place, the places that appear in them or other details that deserve to be mentioned.

You can search for videos on the net that are relevant to them. For example, videos related to customs and festivals of their town or about the profession that they have always carried out.

You can also view old movies and go asking about the actresses and actors that appear in it.

You can make a family tree at a mural as a craft. Use photos, if possible, and ask about each one of them: who is it and what relationship they have or have had. This activity will also promote personal orientation and is one of the best crafts for Alzheimer's patients.

Ask him what he was doing on a certain date that he has lived and how he lived it. This kind of memory, episodic memory, deteriorates in very early stages of the disease, so it would not be an activity indicated in very advanced stages of Alzheimer's.

Let's look at some orientation activities for people with Alzheimer's:

• Buy a calendar that is simple and whose letters and numbers are large enough. If you can't find one, you can take the opportunity to build a homemade calendar as a craft.
• Go over it together and cross out each day that passes, indicating the season in which we are, the day, month and year.
• Take the opportunity to also review the Spatial Orientation: where are you (including address), in what town and in what country.

Take advantage of important moments of the annual calendar to help the person with Alzheimer's to temporarily orient themselves: for example, perform christmas Christmas, write a letter to those closest to you for their birthday or make a mural with flowers for spring or with dry leaves in autumn.

One of the funniest activities for people with Alzheimer's is prepare a recipe. You can ask the person to tell you what steps they have to follow to carry out the recipe. To work on planning activities, you can also use other tasks that require successive steps such as getting dressed.

Ideas to adapt this activity to people in different stages of Alzheimer's:

• If you already have some deterioration, but can read, write the steps to follow on several papers and let me order them. For example: "light the fire", "let the rice rest", "bring the water to boil", "put the rice in" ...
• If the activity is difficult for him, reduce the number of steps you are going to present.
• If he can't read, give him a choice between two options and help him sort the sequence. For example: to get dressed, do I tie my shoes first or do I put them on first?

The shopping list is a very complete task that involves several cognitive processes, making it an activity indicated for the cognitive stimulation of people with Alzheimer's.

You can catch a catalog of a supermarket (or another store whose products appeal to the person with Alzheimer's) and work with them. For example:

• Suggest that I find certain items and tell you the value: for example, look in the catalog for how much a jug of water is worth. This is how selective attention will work.
• If the level of deterioration allows, give him a shopping list and ask him to calculate the price. This is how the calculation will work.
• In mild cases, you can ask you to compare two pricesFor example: what is worth more, a carafe of water or a bottle of oil?

To the extent that deterioration is allowed, the person with Alzheimer's can help their caregiver with tasks such as cleaning or cooking. We will have to supervise the task and, as the disease progresses and autonomy decreases, we can limit these tasks to simpler tasks.

Note that orders should be short, clear and simple.

Another activity for people with Alzheimer's is sorting tasks. Ask him to classify objects according to their color, size, or some other characteristic. For example: "separate the white clothes from the colored ones" or "group the pens by colors". They are practical exercises in cognitive stimulation.

Although the possibilities here are very great, among the pencil and paper tasks we can put, for example, calculation accounts or calligraphy exercises. They can also be word searches or other entertainments and brain games for seniors. You can buy notebooks or print activity sheets for people with Alzheimer's.

Reading is one of the cognitive activities for people with Alzheimer's. If the person is able to read and sees well, you can offer short and simple stories in written form (even a one-paragraph description). If you can't see well or can't read, you can read it yourself. Keep an eye on the prosody (the tone with which you read it). Emphasize what is important and try to keep their attention. Avoid flat tone when reading.

Then ask about the story. If you find it difficult, ask simple yes / no questions or choose between two options. For example: "was the girl blonde or was she brunette?", Instead of asking "what color was the girl's hair?"

After a while, you can take the opportunity and work short term memory. For example, after twenty minutes you can ask her again: "Do you remember the story I read to you a while ago? Do you remember if the girl was blonde or brunette ...

Can you help yourself drawings that have to do with the time of year in which we are, drawings that have a significant value for the person with Alzheimer's or you can even get yourself with books of "mandalas". This activity will depend on people's tastes, but there are people who love and it is relaxing to paint pictures.

Puzzles are one of the board games most used by people with Alzheimer's. In the market we can find a great variety of puzzles in terms of difficulty and theme. Therefore, we can choose them according to the deterioration and the theme, trying to make this the most attractive. Keep in mind that there are companies that make personalized puzzles with our own photographs, which can be a very good idea. The construction of puzzles is another of the cognitive activities for people with Alzheimer's.

The deck of cards offers us many options to carry out activities with people with Alzheimer's. Some examples can be:

• Ask me to sort the cards depending on some of its characteristics such as figures / non-figures, by suits or by number.
• You can ask me to order letters according to their number.
• In milder phases, you can even play any of the games most typical of the deck.

The "I see I see" is one of the best games for people with Alzheimer's an activity in which you choose (without saying it) an object of the place where you are and you offer clues (which are characteristic of that object) until the other person guess.

This game involves the semantic memory, so it is a recommended activity for mild phases of the disease.

You may tell you the first part of the saying for you to complete. In addition, you can analyze together what is the moral of each of the sayings. It is a simple cognitive stimulation activity for people with Alzheimer's that can be done anywhere and does not require material.

You can use a ball to perform exercises and work psychomotor skills. Get a small, squishy ball. You can, for example, ask him to throw it in the air and catch it again, spend it with him or her, ask They take it with one hand and squeeze it, or you can even take a bucket, put it close to them and ask that basket.

Of course this activity will depend on the physical limitations of each person.

Let's look at some sensory activities for people with Alzheimer's. Choose objects with different characteristics and textures: a file, a velvet handkerchief, etc. In the first stages of deterioration, you can ask him if he likes the touch, what it suggests, and even, if you can not see it, you can ask him what it is.

Remember that if they have trouble answering the questions, you can use simpler questions. For example: Do you like the touch? Which one do you like more, this one or this other?

Another sensory stimulation activity is with smell. You can use different fragrances and smells (using scented candles, air fresheners, colognes, etc.). In milder phases you can ask them what those smells suggest to them, if they like it or even try that differentiate the smells (introduce them to two smells and ask them if it is the same or different).

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Activities for people with Alzheimer's, we recommend that you enter our category of Neuropsychology.

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2. World Health Organization (WHO) (2018) International Classification of Diseases, 11th revision. Recovered from https://icd.who.int/es

• American Psychiatric Association (2014). DSM-5. Reference guide to the diagnostic criteria of the DSM-5-Breviary. Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana.
• World Health Organization (WHO) (2018) International Classification of Diseases, 11th revision. Recovered from https://icd.who.int/es
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