Montessori Based Activities For Persons With Dementia

Improve your care by improving the functioning of your clients or residents with Alzheimer's disease. Discover how the principles of Montessori education can help people with dementia maintain or improve skills needed in their daily lives. With these 41 step-by-step activities you can enhance the skills used to perform basic tasks, such as self-feeding, preparing simple meals, dressing, participating in recreational activites, and more. The secret to success of these activities is that they are open-ended so individuals gain a sense of accomplishment at any level of participation; intellectually stimulating and meaningful; adaptable - with suggestions for increasing or lowering the level of difficulty as needed; and springboards to many new variations of activities. Without doubt, Montessori-Based Activities for Persons with Dementia was designed with the busy activity professional in mind. From brightly colored tabs to spiral binding to clear outlines and attention-grabbing callouts, this manual is ready to use right out of the package.

Creative activities can support people with dementia, leading to moments of reconnection and joy. This book shows how the Montessori method - with its arts-based, person-centred and positive focus - can help caregivers connect to people with dementia. Drawing on 20 years of experience, Tom and Karen Brenner explain the philosophy of the Montessori method, provide clearly-written steps to follow when applying it, and share a wealth of case studies and stories from their personal work using this method with people with dementia. This includes reading circles, art programmes, drum circles, poetry, and video diaries. Supported by research of the importance of creativity and the arts in dementia care, it is made clear throughout how every aspect of the Montessori method can help those with dementia to rediscover the world around them, maximising the opportunities they have to reconnect with their peers, family, friends, and support staff.

Certain aspects of the system are in themselves striking and significant: it adapts to the education of normal children methods and apparatus originally used for deficients; it is based on a radical conception of liberty for the pupil; it entails a highly formal training of separate sensory, motor, and mental capacities; and it leads to rapid, easy, and substantial mastery of the elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic. - Introduction.

Follow Tom and Karen Brenner as they help people living with dementia, their families and caregivers navigate this challenging condition using techniques first developed by Maria Montessori. This positive and inspiring book values the person being cared for and offers methods and strategies to engage them and help families and caregivers connect.

This volume gives practical guidance in applying Montessori principles to dementia care. It is written for family caregivers as well as for professionals. It offers information and techniques that will enable caregiving for dementia patients so they can remain at home, safe and protected, while at the same time supporting the caregiver. It uses key Montessori principles of Observation, Standardization, Simplification and Redirection, showing how they can be applied in the home.

Creativity is preserved in dementia long after other abilities are lost, so that making art provides rich opportunities for meaningful engagement for people with this disease. Creative Connections(TM) in Dementia Care provides care partners with the knowledge and easy-to-follow steps they need to successfully implement art projects in a group or one-on-one setting--and no art experience is required! Written for anyone who cares for a person with dementia--family members, friends, and professionals-- this how-to guide is packed with guidance to help enhance communication, interactions, task breakdown, and problem-solving efforts while also encouraging the abilities of each participant. People with dementia enjoy valuable benefits when they actively engage in a creative activity: ? stress is reduced ? memories can be accessed ? mood and self-esteem are elevated ? a sense of personal identity and achievement is experienced To help create these opportunities, Creative Connections(TM) in Dementia Care provides 10 basic art project "recipes," detailing supplies, instructions, and activity modifications, as well as colorful, step-by-step photographs that show how to demonstrate and lead the activity for the person with dementia. Each art activity is failure-free and does not require memory skills to complete. Bring joy and a powerful sense of connection to the lives of people experiencing dementia with this one-of-a-kind guide!

The World Alzheimer's Report 2014 states: "By 2050, 135 million people around the world will live with dementia". That same report states: "Given this epidemic scale and with no known cure, it is crucial that we look at what we can do .......to manage the quality of life of those living with it and their relatives". This book, which is based on a series of lectures delivered by the authors at the University of York, UK in 2011/2012, aims to do just that. The book shows how "work", i.e meaningful activity can improve the quality of life of, not just the persons living with dementia, but their families and friends as well. This book presents Montessori-Based Activities for people living with dementia. It explains: - What Montessori-Based Activities are: - Why Montessori-Based Activities are uniquely suited to helping people living with dementia. The book is filled with practical activities which can be carried out daily by people living with dementia. It has now been proven that Montessori-Based Activities bring about a more positive mind-set in people living with dementia. This in turn results in less "responsive behaviours", less anxiety and less depression. For this reason, Montessori-Based Activity for people living with dementia is presently being seen as a "game-changer" in the field of dementia care.

The way in which dementia is understood and treated is changing, with a growing focus on the individual's experience and person-centred approaches to care. Introducing a new model of dementia care that reflects on the role of a person with dementia within a community and their relationships, this guide for professional and family caregivers demonstrates how to facilitate positive relationships for peaceful living. By understanding the cognitive and physical challenges that older adults with dementia face, caregivers can practice empathic care that affords people with dementia increased freedom of expression and independence. Included here are techniques for conflict resolution that enable people with dementia to be active and self-initiating in times of distress and disruption. Looking at the basics of respect, empathy, and mindfulness, this book also provides hands-on training for employing these virtues in practice with a number of exercises to help achieve the goal of peaceful independent living.