Posted on 04/26/2013 5:50:48 AM PDT by MissEdie
I have a question for those of you in the education and medical fields. A friend of mine was talking about the struggles her mother had (who suffered from Alzheimer's) with communicating. I have worked with several children who had Autism, and they too had difficulty communicating. One thing we do to help children with Autism communicate is to use picture boards and other visual cues. Does anybody know if this type of thing is used to help Alzheimer's patients communicate??
I’m no medical expert. I’m just old and I’m seeing the ravages of Alzheimers among people I’ve counted as friends. There’s no predicting with that disease. For some, I’d say visual cues would be effective. For others, not so much.
This is a study by a doctor whose husband has Alzheimers.
She did some in depth research on this and wrote this article.
It is worth a read.
http://www.coconutoil.com/AlzheimersDiseaseDrMaryNewport.pdf
bookmark for later
My Mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. I think more likely she had Dementia with Lewy Bodies though based on some of the symptoms she had. She just passed last month and I miss her dearly. In the earlier stages of the disease, visual cues can be very helpful, however as it progresses, they really lose their memory and ability to put thoughts together. My Mom would sometimes have something she wanted to relate to us but couldn’t. We’d give her a piece of paper and a pencil and she’d attempt to draw it, but she couldn’t translate what was in her head to paper. Often times the pictures would just be squiggly lines and circles. Familiar things were helpful though. Old pictures or keepsakes are comforting, especially things she had for a very long time. They will remember things from their childhood, but not things from yesterday. I learned a lot about my mom’s youth these last few years.
After that, one never knows what can happen.
What have you seen with coconut oil? I just learned about a possible connection to helping patients....
My beloved dad passed away from this horrible disease.
I have been involved with developing Music Programs for Alzheimers for nearly thirty years. When visual cues are no longer helpful, music has a way of focusing and helps with:
Memory (Lyrics of old songs seem to stay on, even when verbal skills are lost)
Reality Orientation (Songs from various eras bring back specific memories of events...such as WW2 songs, Early Rock & Roll, Elvis tunes, and for younger patients, The Beatles.
Relaxation and Calming Anxiety (Classical Music is best for this, especially in the late afternoon, when “Sun-Downing” occurs.)
I have found in my own experience that the best music for any age group is that which was most popular during their HIGH SCHOOL YEARS. These are the years of First Jobs, First Romance, First Dances, First Competitive Sports, First Military Experience, First Kiss, etc. When I started in this work, most patients remembered WW2 as the pivotal event in their lives. Now that the Baby Boomers are aging, the music of the 60’s is helpful. I found that Motown was REALLY important to men who were Veterans during that period. For Lady Boomers, The Beatles, Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons, Elvis, and other Mainstream 60’s music (NOT so much the psychadelic stuff).
Soft Classical is ALWAYS good, and the Romantic era of piano (Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, etc) is wonderful for helping with anxiety. Perhaps because of the wonderfully complex mathematics of Classical Counterpoint and Harmony, this music serves to focus and re-align the patient’s thought processes.
Live music is ALWAYS best, but if you use recordings, ask open-ended questions like:
“What does this song mean to you?”
“What does this song remind you of?”
“Do you remember what you were doing when you listened to this song?”
“Who used to sing this?”
“Who was the president of the USA when this song was a hit?”
“Did you ever dance to this song?”
etc etc etc.
I hope this has been helpful. When my Dad was diagnosed, I made a series of cd’s of his favorite music. Since he used to take me to the symphony all the time when I was a child, the cd’s triggered many memories and a LOT of communication.
Dad also liked Joe Cocker, the Beatles, Hank Williams, Credence Clearwater, Noel Harrison, and (of all things!) The Red Army Chorus.
NOTHING is off-limits if it brings back a memory.
You can find good info about coconut oil and lots of other natural supplements for Alzheimer’s and dementia in this book: Awakening from Alzheimers: How 9 Maverick Doctors are Reversing Alzheimer’s, Dementia and Memory Loss.
Yes.
I agree completely.
It’s certainly worth a try, and it might work better for some people than for others. But Alzheimer’s isn’t so much a problem of aphasia, as it is of the very thoughts being gone, the purposes of things forgotten.
Others have mentioned music from the patient’s youth - old photo albums might be calming too. My father in law used to read poems with his mother, that she had learned in school. Sometimes a simple task can be soothing - folding towels for instance.
Strokes are really weird because it depends on exactly where in the brain the damage is. I don't know how this effects people with other brain disorders, but patients and letting the person find the words helps in some cases..
The next day I got him out into the hall and we could converse at a slow speed. He could un derstand everything you said to him....I asked him at one point if he wanted a popsicle, he nodded his head and we both sat in the hallway eating a popsicle.....It takes patience and not expecting results that the person is not capable of, find out what they CAN do and start from there.....GG
It has helped many people with ALS, Alzheimers, and Parkinson’s.
bkmk
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