ACTIVITIES FOR SENIORS WITH ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
For the person with Alzheimer’s Disease, activities and routines can mean the difference between feeling loved and needed and feeling unloved and unnecessary.
When planning activities and daily tasks to help the person with Alzheimer’s organize their day, think about where they are in the stages of the disease and remember that creating a routine creates comfort for them. As they may be forgetting people, engagement in activities helps to keep them connected and comforted.
Watch Video Clip from the movie "Still Alice":
For the person with Alzheimer’s Disease:
What skills and abilities does the person have?
What does the person enjoy doing?
Does the person begin activities without direction?
Does the person have physical problems?
PLANNING
Your Approach to Developing a Daily Plan for Engaged Activities
Make the activities part of your daily routine
Focus on enjoyment, not achievement
Determine what time of day is best for the activity
Offer support and supervision
Be flexible and patient
Stress involvement by them—even if you are asking them which cup to use or which color to pick
Help the person remain as independent as possible
Simplify instructions
Establish a familiar routine
Activities for Seniors with Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Loss
Rule #1: Relax and have fun!
Rule #2: Be in the moment!
Rule #3: Smile when they smile!
Meet Them Where They Are Each Day
Match and Mirror Their Behavior (as long as they aren’t harming themselves or others).
It will be common that a senior with memory loss will go back to a habit formed a long time ago. For example, if they worked as a bank teller, they might be very comfortable sorting out money or paper. Think about ways you can assist them to have the comfort of doing the motions of the activity, even if actually doing the activity the exact same way is not appropriate. For example, this is why some seniors with Alzheimer’s disease take comfort in holding a doll as if it is actually a real baby. If you can creatively think about how to safely give them some physical activity, you can often bring them great satisfaction.
Activity Ideas
Reminisce
Read aloud
Sing to the music they remember
Go to a park to sit and people-watch
Go to a lake or river to watch boaters and sun-seekers
Make a scrapbook using magazines and photos
Bake cookies or an easy recipe
Watch old movies together
Watch Video on Activities:
Memory Loss for Recent Events
During the early stages of the disease, individuals often will have a difficult time remembering more recent events and newly learned information. They will ask the same question over and over again, for example. They may misplace items by placing them somewhere the item clearly does not belong, such as placing a piece of jewelry in the silverware drawer. They may wear an outfit that is not appropriate for where they are going or what they are doing. They may forget their address.
This is why developing a routine for each day and keeping a simplified and organized home are both very important tasks to implement as early as possible.
Simplify the daily events and connect with the senior based on where they are each day to keep them feeling as comfortable and secure as possible.
Activities should be designed to follow familiar activities, understanding how very basic daily tasks are being forgotten. Avoid making the senior think more. Instead, make any activity extremely easy for them to follow.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
Reminiscing Exercises
Play favorite music from their high school and childhood days to spark pleasant memories to reminisce about. View photo albums or movies or television shows from their childhood or young adult days. Many times seniors will remember an old sitcom or television series that was one of their favorites and watching an episode daily can be built into their daily activities. Discuss with their children or loved ones to learn about their former favorite pastimes. Very often by introducing a
positive entertainment option from the past, you will spark feel-good memories.
Baby Doll Comfort for Middle and Late Stages
Dolls can deliver a calming effect for both men and women with Alzheimer's disease as the disease progresses. Baby dolls that are close to the actual size of a baby bring them back to a time when they felt loved and had a sense of purpose in caring for a child. A baby doll can bring pleasure and security to a senior with Alzheimer's disease. Try to introduce a doll with the same hair, skin and eye color of one of their children or another loved one to make it easy for them to connect with their memories and to connect the doll as their own. Or, simply let them choose a doll they like.
Watch Video about Doll Therapy:
Activity Pillows and Aprons
Sometimes seniors with Alzheimer’s disease will begin to constantly seek to engage their hands. Their busy hands may add to agitation for them. Introducing an activity pillow or apron will allow them to safely have stimulation which may include:
Buttons to button
Zippers to zip
Ties to tie
Find ways to safely engage their hands in repetitive activities, such as a magazine with pages to turn or a jar of coins to sort. Anything which they may be familiar with can bring comfort and help them feel included.
Photos as Conversation Starters
Our brains are wired to remember events that had an emotional impact on us. Both very happy and very sad events will more easily be remembered by all of us as we age. Seniors experiencing memory loss will sometimes dwell on one of these happy or sad memories.
Happy Memory Conversation Starter: Vacation photos and family photos can be used to spark a happy memory. Ask your Care Manager or one of the senior’s family members about a happy memory you could spark by using a photo. You can also create a new photo album with pictures of people who are currently important in the senior's life, including photos of you with the senior. Then you can refer to the photo album to discuss your day.
Music and Memories
The Alive Inside documentary explains how music memory remains for a person with memory loss and by finding the right song playlist, caregivers can connect a person with memory loss to themselves and others. The emotion that music evokes remains and allows them to be “alive” even when other forms of communication no longer work.
Engagement with music does require cognition.
Music ties us to events and memories which evoke emotions. Emotions are even more important when a senior experiences memory loss because they are losing connections with their loved ones.
Playing a song as senior loved, you can allow them to tap into the present moment.
Our favorite songs transport us by conjuring surrogate emotions through our brain channels which are hard-wired into our experience of music.
Music Triggers Memories
Watch this video from the “Alive Inside” documentary to see how music allows seniors with memory loss to gain their ability to remember and communicate.
Watch Video of Man in Nursing Home Reacting to Music:
HOW TO DEVELOP A PLAYLIST FOR A SENIOR
Watch the documentary ”Alive Inside”
Talk with a senior’s loved ones to learn about their favorite songs from different decades in their life
Research songs that were popular during a senior’s teenage and young adult years. This is when we turn to music as we cope with growing pains and first loves
Make a Playlist: Youtube allows searching for music by decade and other services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Pandora allow for playlists
Find comfortable headphones
Introduce the senior to the music. Plan for consistently scheduled music time each day. Take notes on songs that connect with them to share with family members and your senior care team.
SENIOR MUSIC BY DECADE
Why the Songs We Hear as Teenagers Hold Eternal Power of Emotions
Memories are Meaningless WITHOUT EMOTION
Brain imaging studies show that our favorite songs stimulate the brain’s pleasure circuit, which releases an influx of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and other neurochemicals that make us feel good. The more we like a song, the more we are treated to neurochemical bliss, flooding our brains with neurotransmitters.
When we are TEENAGERS, the neural activity sparks even more because our brains are sparking with growth hormones. These hormones tell our brains that everything is incredibly important.
These songs that are the soundtrack to our teenage dreams and mishaps stay with us throughout our lifetime. Think of this as a fireworks show of neurons in our mind, imprinting the songs into our memories permanently.
Kick up a song you loved as a teenager and you will also kick up those memories. Scientists say that the years between age 12 and age 22 are when you “become you.” These years are when you mature into an adult both physically and emotionally.
Singing
Sing along to a song in your head and you will activate your “premotor cortex” which helps plan and coordinate movements.
Dancing
Dance and your neurons will synchronize with the beat of the music.
When you pay attention to the lyrics and the beats of the instruments, you activate your “parietal cortex” which helps your brain maintain attention to different stimuli.
Listen to a song that triggers personal memories and your “prefrontal cortex” which maintains information relevant to your personal life and relationships will begin to pull in all of the connections you make to the music.
Music connects with us emotionally and we will most remember events that sparked strong emotions. Weddings, graduations, and all those “firsts” that happen when we are teenagers. As a caregiver, remember the first movie you attended as a teenager, the first dance you attended, and perhaps even your first kiss. What were the songs that you can remember playing or listening to when you were in high school? Do you remember who the top singers and musicians were at the top? Who was the “Elvis Presley” of your teenage years? Part of the reason there are teenage heart-throb singers is that this is when we are maturing into adults and feeling all of the hormones for the first time and for reasons that scientists are still researching, these songs become imprinted within our brains permanently, with the ability to bring back the memory even when we are experiencing a memory loss condition.
Playlists to Connect with your Senior Client—By Decade
Here is a guideline to begin a discussion with the senior or their family members to find the songs they liked when they were teenagers and young adults. Remember, just like you may like a certain artist but may not like all of their songs, the same is true for a senior. Talk to their family members to learn the singers and songs they really liked, or, you can always experiment by playing songs to see what sparks a response if they are already experiencing memory loss.
AGE OF SENIOR + PLAYLIST GUIDE
The senior who is age 90s+ will like music from the 1940s
Ella Fitzgerald
Billie Holiday
Hank Williams
Louis Armstrong
Benny Goodman
The Mills Brothers
The King Cole Trio
Charlie Parker
Dean Martin
Glenn Miller Orchestra
The senior who is age 80s+ will like music from the 1950s
Elvis Presley
Nat King Cole
Chuck Berry
Buddy Holly
Perry Como
Carl Perkins
Fats Domino
Bing Crosby
The senior who is age 70s+ will like music from the 1960s
The Beatles
The Rolling Stones
Bob Dylan
The Beach Boys
Ray Charles
The Temptations
Simon & Garfunkel
Tammy Wynette
George Jones
Buck Owens
The senior who is age 60s+ will like music from the 1970s
Alabama
Olivia Newton-John
Kenny Rogers
ABBA ("Mamma Mia", both movie and songs)
Pink Floyd
Eagles
Aerosmith
Ramones
Bruce Springsteen
David Bowie
The senior who is age 50s+ will like music from the 1980s
Madonna
Celine Dion
Michael Jackson
Prince
George Michael
Elton John
Diana Ross
Duran Duran
George Strait
Marie Osmond
Willie Nelson
George Strait
Remember, all of us have our own tastes in music. We may like more than one style of music. Try to discuss with your senior what type of music they have liked throughout their life to best find the playlist that will be a fit for them.
You can add playing certain songs or music to your daily routine with the senior. Scheduling a time to listen to music or sing-a-long could be a daily or weekly activity.
Songs of Faith
Songs that connect with a person’s religion or with special life milestones can also spark strong emotions and memories. If a senior attended a certain church as a child or an adult, they may connect songs to their religion. They may also have a strong memory of some of the songs from their religion’s hymnal book.
Find out if the person you are caring for has any special songs that bring them comfort or joy that may be from their religious service.
WOODSONG MUSIC RESOURCE
If the senior you are caring for has a connection with religious songs from their church services, you can find out which songs are sung at different church denominations from Woodsong Music. They have organized church hymns by religion. This can be a way to find songs that connect with a senior who follows a certain religious faith.
Laugh Daily
Think of a daily activity that will spark laughter for your senior client. Perhaps they would enjoy watching a television show, such as “I Love Lucy” or another show they enjoyed when they were younger. Maybe there is a joke of the day in the daily newspaper or you can find a joke book or a website with jokes. Maybe they will like “knock-knock” jokes. Or maybe there is something funny that you can do each day to make a laugh such as standing on one leg to balance or doing another personal funny “move.” Maybe there is something you can always find to laugh about when serving the meal or cleaning up after a meal. If you can find a way to laugh each day, this can be your grounding moment to share with the senior.
At the restaurant the other night...
An elderly looking gentleman, (mid-nineties) very well dressed, hair well-groomed, great looking suit, flower in his lapel, smelling slightly of a good aftershave, presenting a well-looked-after image, walks into an upscale cocktail lounge.
Seated at the bar is an elderly-looking lady.
The gentleman walks over, sits alongside her, orders a drink, takes a sip, turns to her, and says, “So tell me, do I come here often?”
💡 Tip Sheet
Develop Activities Customized for the Senior Based on their Past Favorite Activities, Develop Activities Similar to Physical Tasks that Will Remind Them of Performing Activities They Did in the Past, Smile When They Smile, Be in the Moment, Reminisce About the Past, Read Aloud, Sing, Dance