Activities

Rick G

My DW has moderate Alz. Are there any games that you have found to be enjoyable?

Thanks

Joe C.

Rick, Welcome but sorry you needed to seek out our community. I tried playing games my wife was familiar with most of her life such as playing cards, doing puzzles or Monopoly when the kids & grandkids were around. It worked during the very early stages but her ability to follow the games really diminished by mid stage. The thing that DW most enjoyed was listening to the music of her youth.

darcytg

Welcome Rick,

My LO is often cold.

We found that a table top ping pong game while listening to her favorite music warmed her up and made us laugh.

No scoring just volleys....and much ball chasing.

trottingalong

My DH avoids any type of games. He says they make him feel stupid.

fmb

Welcome to this forum, Rick G, though I am sorry that you have the need to be here. This is a great place to get information and support. My DH is in Stage 6 and is in AL. He goes to Bingo twice a week, can play one card fairly accurately, and seems to enjoy it. He also plays Uno with the Activities Director and other residents. We tried extra-large dominoes so it would be easier for him to see the pips and to manipulate, but he couldn't reach to place them. I bought a pack of large-print playing cards today and will see if he can play Go Fish or any other simple games when I visit. He can't see well enough to do jigsaw puzzles, and large piece puzzles designed for PWD are rather expensive. I also purchased picture books designed for adults with dementia, and he enjoys looking at them with me.

clarinetist

Hi Rick,

During the earlier stages my husband liked the simple dementia jigsaw puzzles that you can get online at Relish. He went from 100-piece to 35-piece puzzles, but eventually they became too frustrating for him. Now he enjoys looking at the picture books you can get online for folks with dementia. Also he likes to take the wooden blocks from a Jenga game and arrange them in different ways. He thinks he is doing some sort of job while he does this. His favorite activity is singing or clapping along to music from the Seventies (his youth) that I get from a Pandora app on our smart TV.

/STEVE

I think it is different for each person. My wife did a lot of sewing before, now she will sit in her sewing room with TV and move material around take some thing apart put some together but I do not think I have seem any thing completed in the last 2 years.

She has a book that she has read at least 10 times, she will finish it tell me how good it was and ask if I would like to read it. I say yes and that night I will put next to her chair and she will start to read it again, the other day she was reading and said she thought she had read a paragraph before and read it to me. and than keep reading the book.

The other day I got her like 84 pares of ear rings for like $20.00, (amazon). I bet she has spent over 20 hours now going through them.

She will do some painting but someone need to be painting with her.

we go out to breakfast most morning to a small place and she will talk to most everyone but she was always out going.

My wife is a 3 in some ways and a 5 in others.

M1

Rick my partner was a very accomplished artist. She can no longer initiate projects on her own, but i have bought a number of children's art projects at Michael's and Hobby Lobby and she loves doing them as long as i am doing them with her. That is really the only activity i can interest her in now.

Bluebird

Check with your local library. I work in a library and our library has all kinds of activities for people with dementia, that you can checkout. We have memory books and simple puzzles and games. I don’t know if other libraries have this but ours does. Ask the reference desk if they have anyone who specializes in helping the elderly or if they have items for people with dementia or if they offer a home bound service. Don’t ask the front desk, they may not know the library offers this service. If the reference desk isn’t sure if they offer the service ask to speak to a manager and ask them. Our library also offers a home bound service. We have an employee who delivers items to retirement centers, asst. living centers and to patrons homes, who are unable to come to the library. Most of the patrons who use the home bound service are caregivers of people with dementia. It’s a great service some libraries offer that most people don’t know about.

Dunno

Hello Rick, I wanted to mention that board and card games were what initially tipped me off to something going on with my wife. I first noticed it about 7 years ago when we would pick up our granddaughters from school on Fridays. We used to play games and have pizza together, where we would all participate in making the pizza, decorating it with cheese, ground sausage, pepperonis, etc. It was fun. This is when I think I first noticed my wife withdrawing, particularly from the games. I think she might have been embarrassed/agitated about having trouble following along and eventually stopped playing altogether. hope you find something she enjoys...

LaneyG

i have trouble getting him interested in puzzle and games but occasionally can get him into a simple card game. We’ve played Menopoly to simply see who could buy the most properties. I got Shut the Box for Xmas. Very simple short game. He loves music so You Tube has been really helpful. We love the old time musicals and hunt those down as well as any appropiate music events in the area. I am also in need of ideas. Have thought of painting.

Bluebird

My husband will look at books with lots of photos but will not do puzzles, games, painting or other activities unless I’m doing them with him. I tried ordering him all kinds of magazines on different topics but when they come he says he’s already read that one, even though it’s new and he’s never seen it before. Then he throws it away without looking at it.

mpang123

That's a good idea about getting books with pictures. He likes pretty scenery and I will let him look at old photos that he took on his iPhone. He doesn't do games or puzzles. Too confusing. I tried bringing him newspaper to read but he just says he already read them even though it's the current news of the day.

wizmo

A lot of this depends on what they did earlier in life, if they were involved in games. Trying to learn a new game is not likely to work. Bringing back previously experienced childhood activities is easier.

Over 6+ years we constantly adjusted activities based on her declining abilities. In varying stages we could do things like:

jigsaw puzzles - she could help take all the pieces out of the box and sort into colors while I assemble, and most of the time I have her place the final 3-5 pieces. size matters, we can do 300 piece puzzles in reasonable time, sometimes in 2-3 sessions. having space to leave it unfinished helps. she could never do them independently and when we tried small number / large piece puzzles she decided they were too childish.

bingo - she could manage 4 cards, then 2, then 1, then 1 without any accuracy unable to keep pace with caller. we don't go any longer because she wants to chat with neighboring players and distracts them.

computer/tablet games - simple ones like connect the dots, candy crush-like games designed for younger players. self-paced (no time limit) are better, and turn off or lower volume on sound effects. sometimes we are a team, alternating moves as one player. even simple ones are no longer possible, she doesn't understand how to play even when I demonstrate.

simple card games - we could play against each other for a while but she now has to have a partner even for uno or go fish and it's less often we have the extra player

music almost all the time on smart speaker, starting to figure out a couple of play lists for keeping a happy mood going or for calming agitation

bowling alley - seems more expensive than it used to be for occasional visits, now limited to 1 slow game. still successful because she has physical abilities to roll the ball and everything else is automated.

biggest factor now at stage 6 is supervision - she can do very little independently, has shorter attention span, but is often content to sit with me and watch whatever I am doing with her preferred music in background.

sandwichone123

My dh has been playing his computer game, but I think that activity is coming to an end now. I don't know that we'll be able to replace it with anything. He always has a book going, but it's been the same book for months now. He's about half-way through--has been since October. Jigsaw puzzles are popular at his assisted living. There are always one or two going on tables where they can stay set out.