12 Favorite Activities ideas for seniors at the early stage of dementia

What comes to your mind when you think about an activity to do with seniors at the early stages of dementia?

At some point in life you will get old and when that time comes you will still like to be active but then you won’t be able to do the things you did when you were younger.

Most of the activities listed here are age sensitive. Your love one won’t have to burn up much energy. Others activities require a little effort but this effort is appropriate to their age.

The mental and physical state of the person at the time needs to be considered before engaging in any activity.

Remember the goal of every activity is to achieve purpose and pleasure for the senior. 

When our love ones are unable to remember when to take their medications, unable to cook their meals and quite often leave water running all day, we feel worried, frustrated and we give-up on them making them feel drag.

Don’t give up yet!

For there are still fun activities you can engage with them that helps to boost self esteem and sense of belonging and accomplishment.

Here is my to-do-list of activities with person with dementia at an early stage. Some of these activities can be done alone and in a group.

But first let look at …

How to choose an activity at the early stage of dementia 

Focus on retaining remaining skills

You want to focus on maximizing what the person can do and minimize what they can’t. Maximizing their potential helps boost self esteem.

Encourage continuity with current life style 

You need to keep encouraging them to continue doing what they have been doing like if they have been taking care of the garden you want them to continue at that.

Adapt where necessary 

Avoid being to kind to the person by doing everything for them because your goal is to provide a sense of purpose.

12 Activities ideas you can do with seniors with dementia at the early stage

#1. Do a Videotape series – your love ones has seen a lot, lived through a lot and done a lot, so videotape your love ones detailing their life their experiences and opinions about life. This will be good for their grand kids who someday may be curious to know their family history. 

#2. Install a memory wall - install a memory wall in the patient’s room with a collection of pictures of their time with friend and family. Label each person’s name against their picture. For seniors who can still read at this stage, include pictures of their favorite places with stories in their own words about their memories of those places. 

#3. Jigsaw puzzle – lots of seniors enjoy puzzles, get a very easy piece of jigsaw puzzle of no more than 500 pieces preferably the ones that have beautiful nature pieces of cardboard sorted by basic colors. Make sure there is always a new one to start working on before they finish working on the current one. Puzzles are great at keep seniors busy and sometimes take close to 2 days to complete. 

#4. Watching nature documentaries – national geography would be a good pick for me.

#5. Audio books, recordings of radio programs and podcast - there are tons of audio books available in libraries for you to copy. Your love one may have poor vision or may not be able to read. Audio books especially the story telling ones are great beside who doesn’t love to hear a good story. 

#6. Make them a Playlist - Make a playlist of the kind of music they like and save it in a computer or any other multimedia device they can have access to easily so they can listen at any time.

#7. Senior to senior programs – your love one could use some companionship, lots of assisted living facilities offer senior for senior programs too where they match older adults dogs to senior citizens.

#8. Teach basic computer skills – at this stage of dementia, the seniors isn’t completely cognitively down so learning basic computer skills like how to email will connect your love one with friend and grand kids far away easily. 

#9. Join a senior sport league - Get the senior to socialize through senior sport league so they can play some golf if they are still physically fit.  

#10. Ask them to write short stories and put all the stories in a book. 

#11. Reconnect with old friends – reconnecting with old friends may be dinner parties, tea parties, banquets etc can spark some earlier life events. 

#12. Gardening - gardening is fun outdoor activities most retired seniors do. It can be every joyful especially as you get to nest and grow your own food. Gardening is self fulfilling, creates a sense of accomplishment and boost confidence. 

Why are activities important for dementia patients?

Being diagnosed with dementia means we are going to have a decline in our cognitive ability but that doesn’t reduce the ability to be active for being active is important for our well-being. 

Re-establish old role 

We all have are daily routines to attend to every day of our life, some we can’t go for a day without doing them. But people with Alzheimer’s often isolate themselves, stay lock indoors and shy away from their usual daily routines. Engaging a patient in little things like daily household chores reduces idleness, creates stability and helps maintain skill. 

Slows dementia symptoms 

Engaging a senior in an activity daily helps reduces the progress of dementia symptoms. This slowness in decline is beneficial to the senior as it helps the senior to stay active. 

Improves quality of life 

Most seniors as there get older often feel like they are a burden to their love ones and have nothing else to offer, but engaging a senior in activities that are productive help boost self esteem  and increase their quality of life since they can partake and contribute in a task. 

Manages challenging behaviors 

When stress, seniors often turn to be so agitated and angry over little thing, isolation can lead to depression. There have so much positive energy in them with no means to channel it. But understanding what calms them down is very important and most often certain activities can play such calming role. Activities like massage. 

Great way to have fun and social contact 

Even though the senior is becoming more forgetful, some activities are quite pleasurable, bring up lots of chats, laughter and social interaction which are essential for a seniors well being.     

Conclusion 

Having an aging member is a real challenge and it requires you to be at your best always to make them happy even at an early stage of dementia you will have to learn how to cope with the challenge and activities are just a great way to go about it. But as you about engaging them in these activities also make sure the senior tries to do them independently if possible. 

Image by Giustiliano Calgaro from Pixabay

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56 Must Do Free Activities for Seniors with Dementia

We all at some stage need to engage in one or more free activities as we go about our daily routines, but seniors with dementia turn to withdraw themselves from such routines.


Therefore it is our responsibility to help them by choosing the right and fun fill activities they will enjoy.


You are at the right place for I have carefully categories 12 free activities to get your love ones engage once again.


All you need to do is relax and choose the one you know you and the patient will enjoy. 


But first you need to know a couple of things first before engaging your love one in any form of activity.

How to choose activities for seniors with dementia

Focus on remain skills

Most of the time you may want to focus on what the person cannot do but remember your goal is to enhance the person’s mood so focus on what the person can do for there is a big chance the person actually loves that.

Focus on the personality of the person

Make sure you know what the patient likes or dislike, you can get more info about this from close family members. 


Or you can check records if available to understand their pass life and experiences.

Try to be consistent

Being consistent is a great way to create a direction in the person’s life.

Expect good and bad days

At some point you may discover that some activities that use to work previously no longer work again. 


So you should expect that and not fill discourage when those days come.

In some cases choose activity you will enjoy too

Since boosting self esteem and maintaining socialization is one of your goals, it will be good to do the activity together for that creates connection and provides a sense of enjoyment.

Choosing activities at the early stage

Focus on retaining remaining skills

You want to focus on maximizing what the patient can do and minimize what they can’t. 


Maximizing their potential helps boost self esteem.

Encourage continuity with current life style

You need to keep encouraging them to continue doing what they have been doing before. 


For example if they have been taking care of the garden you want them to continue at that.

Adapt where necessary

Avoid being to kind to the patient by doing everything for them because your goal is to provide a sense of purpose.

Choosing activities at the middle stage

Require simpler, shorter activities and instructions

Simpler activities help prevent boredom, maintain communication and such activities are good physical health.

More focus on past life activities

Anchor on what the patient use to do before for you want to provide a sense of accomplishments as that will helps boost self esteem.

Activities at the late stage

Shorter, less frequent and less demanding or simple activities

Simple task are just to provide reassurance so that they person doesn’t feel drown. 


Since the patient can’t do much, they need these short and less demanding activities help relief stress and frustration. 


The steps for this kind of task or activity are simplified

Focus on enhancing quality of life

Your goal here is to promote dignity and comfort.

What types of activities could you do with someone with dementia?

Let me start by making a clarification...


Note that there are different types of dementia's and different people have different experience with dementia. 


Therefore, there is nothing like a “dementia activity” but there are activities you can do with seniors with dementia which I am about to clearly summarize for you.  

56 Must Do Free Activities for Seniors with Dementia

I have categorize these activities you can do with a dementia patient into 12 types. 

1. Anxiety reducing activities
2. Calming Activities
3. Activities of daily living
4. Old roles activities
5. Creative activities
6. Half-done activities
7. Sensory activities
8. Physical activities
9. Mental activities
10. Social activities
11. Spiritual activities
12. 5 senses activities

#1. Anxiety reducing activities

Dementia patients are always anxious due to the constant memory losses. 


So you will need activities that can reduce the anxiety and prevent the restlessness. 


Such an activity need to use up some more energy. Examples of anxiety reducing activities are;

1. Brisk walk – to burn off energy in a positive way
2. Sorting objects
3. light a candle using essential oil like lavender 
4. chew bubble gums
5. blow bubbles

#2. Calming Activities

Image by Heike Frohnhoff from Pixabay

Most Dementia patients often feel overwhelm by their environment. 


Calming activities will be of great help here and some examples are;

1. Massages – a little feet massage though not all the time will help calm them.
2. Pet therapy – just sitting down and carrying a dog, cat or any other pet is enough therapy for the patient.
3. Quiet music – music is a charmer and quiet music definitely will reduce the nerves.
4. Sleep
5. Take a cold shower

Check how important music is to our health.

#3. Activities of daily living

Image by Annalise Batista from Pixabay

Activities of daily living are just like the routines we do every day as we wake up from sleep. 


These kinds of activities help maintain the patient’s current skills and encourage a feeling of independence. 


Some activities of daily living can be;

1. Grooming – like the person can do their own personal hygiene and if they need your assistance that’s still fine. 
2. Household chores
3. Toileting
4. Dressing
5. Transferring that is Getting in and out of bad 

#4. Old roles activities

Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

These kind of activities help maintain self esteem because you engage the patient with familiar hobbies. 


It is a continuation of some of the patients old roles in their past life. This kind of activity can be;

1. Continuing with a hobby – like if they you love cooking you can continuing doing that.
2. Walking to a former place of employment
3. Shopping
4. Reading news papers
5. Visiting friends and family

#5. Creative activities

Image by annayozman from Pixabay

This kind of activity opens a window for self expression and communication; this kind of activities provides a connection with other people and it is springs out pleasant memories and emotions. 


Creative activities is all about doing it. For example

1. Listening to music
2. Painting
3. Visiting a gallery
4. Snapping Catchy pictures
5. Learning to play an instrument

#6. Half-done activities

This kind of activity helps promote independence and really doesn’t require instructions. 


The essence with this kind of activity is to motivate the patient to complete a started task. For example;

1. Some towels folded on top of the laundry basket – something that has started and needs to be finished.

#7. Sensory activities

Image by Marina Pershina from Pixabay

This kind of activities is essential at the later stage of the disease; such activities will involve utilizing one of the patients five senses so they can stay connected with people and their environment. 


To some extent, it may elicit pleasant feelings and memories. For example

1. Aromatherapy – a smell may make you think of something.
2. Massage
3. Sensory bag
4. Sorting coins
5. Pupping bubbles

#8. Physical activities

Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

The purpose of this kind of activity is to keep the patient active, physically and psychologically healthy and of course such activities will require some extra energy. For example

1. Walking
2. Games ( e.g. tossing ball)
3. Adapted sport ( e.g. tennis with a large ball)
4. Exercise (e.g. stretching, chair exercises)
5. Gardening / yard work
6. Doing chores (e.g. washing dishes)

#9. Mental activities

Image by Sabine van Erp from Pixabay

This is an activity that depends on the state of the individual with the primary aim of stimulating and not frustrating. For example

1. Reading – it will be good for the person to read out loud if they can.
2. Word game (e.g. finish famous saying)
3. Watching game shows
4. Memory games (e.g. kim’s game)

#10. Social activities

Image by Jeniffer, Wai Ting Tan from Pixabay

The purpose of this kind of activity is to keep you engage with people, your surroundings and most importantly to reduce isolation which may lead to depression and much worst. For example;

1. Group activities ( e.g. church, tap dancing, tea party)
2. Visiting (e.g. families, children)
3. Celebrations (e.g. birthdays)
4. Social games (e.g. bingo)
5. Memory maps

#11. Spiritual activities

Image by zachosine from Pixabay

The purpose of this kind of activity is to provide support for the person with dementia. 


The spiritual activity is not necessarily tie to a religion. For example;

1. Singing hymns
2. Walking in nature ( e.g. Forest bathing)
3. Spiritual ceremonies
4. Prayer and meditation
5. Chanting

#12. 5 senses activities

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

The purpose of this kind of activities is to engage one or two of the patient’s 5 senses. For example

1. Watching movies
2. Gardening
3. Baking/cooking
4. Aromatherapy
5. Blind fold games

10 simple ways to engage dementia residents in activities

Ask the person to help you

For most dementia patients, we are used to doing everything for them but doing everything for them isn't the right approach. 


To make the patient feel productive ask them to help you. 


That way, there is some team work and a sense of accomplishment.

Break down the instructions into simple steps

Don’t give foxy instructions like for example “why don’t you handle this why I go do this”. No! Don’t do that because the patient at some stage is going to have a hard time doing the activity. 


Just make the steps really simple like for example “help me let’s fold these towels.”

Demonstrate as you instruct

So here you need to personally show an example on how things are done so the patients can see and follow like for example you bake a cake and instruct the patient to follow the same step you use.

Offer help only when needed

Let say the task you gave the patient wasn’t executed properly, you may assist the patient accomplish that task but only when the assistance is needed. 

Be patient, slow down and repeat

This point speaks for itself, you don’t need to rush things some patients are generally slow to catch-up, if a task need to be repeated over and over just do it. 


Remember your focus is on the patient not yourself. 

Be supportive

When you are being supportive, take care not to also be condescending, little statements like ‘thanks for your help’ will do just fine in supporting the patient for their effort.

Adapt activities to charging skills

At some stage your patient may not be physical apt to do some activities to completion as before. 


So let’s say at first your patient could prepare an entire meal, but can’t anymore, you can just give them a partial task like let say setting up the table for the launch. 


That way you are trying to fit in something related to their pass interest. 

Do the activities with the person

What you are doing here is trying to create a connection with the patient and that’s very important.

Let the person complete a started activity

Here you can start the activity with the person and then ask them kindly if they wouldn’t mind completing the task. 


That way the patient begins to feel your trust in them. 

Let the person do only person of a projects

In a case where the person doesn’t find the project interesting or maybe it is difficult for them, let them just do parts of the project.

Conclusion

Activities for seniors with dementia should definitely be things they normally do enjoy in their daily life, those things that reflect their personality and interest. 


I carefully summarized this different types of activities to clearly highlight the fact that they offer different benefits.   


So tell me which activity you think your patient will enjoyed?

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