According to the Alzheimer’s Association, five million men and women in the U.S. have Alzheimer’s. The disease has skyrocketed and outpaced heart disease as a leading factor in the cause of death. While any Alzheimer’s diagnosis is scary to the senior and his or her family, it’s important to try to approach the disease by avoiding stress. This is especially true of the bond between a grandparent and grandchild. Here are three games your children can play with your aging parent to help with memory retention.
Hangman/Wheel of Fortune
A game as simple as Hangman helps your aging parent with vocabulary and word retention. It also benefits a child who is building spelling skills. If your child has a tablet available, you can download child-friendly versions of games like Wheel of Fortune to help your child and grandparent form a bond while also helping with memory and vocabulary skills. If your parent likes watching Wheel of Fortune, have your child join your mom or dad and watch them both play along.
Memory
Memory is a game that works on remembering where an object is located. Cards are turned upside down for players to take turn finding matching pairs. The objects on the cards are bright and colorful, which makes them appealing to all ages. If you don’t have the game on hand, it’s just as easy to play it with a deck of cards. It helps with memory retention skills and is a perfect game for children and their grandparents.
Scavenger Hunts
It doesn’t take much to set up a scavenger hunt. All you need to do is go outside or walk around the home, write a list of objects for the players to find. Copy that list and give one to each player. You can offer a reward for all players to ensure there are no hurt feelings. If the weather is cooperative, a supervised scavenger hunt in your parent’s backyard helps your parent go outside for fresh air and exercise, which is beneficial if depression is an issue.
Make sure you’re spending quality time with your parent. As tempting as it is to try to offer around-the-clock elderly care for a parent with dementia, you’ll burn out. A home care service specializing in elderly care services for men and women with dementia helps you enjoy time spent with your own children and your aging parent.
If you or an aging loved one are considering hiring elderly care in Mountainside, NJ, call the caring staff at Helping Hands Home Care today at 908-418-4299. Providing Home Care Services in all of Northern and Central NJ, including Clark, Westfield, Cranford, Scotch Plains, Rahway, Linden, Summit, Edison, Elizabeth, Mountainside and the surrounding areas.
Sources: http://www.alz.org/facts/overview.asp
After graduating from Seton Hall University with a BS in finance Helping Hands Homecare’s Owner / President, Robert D’Arienzo, went to work on Wall St. for six years. However, after Robert’s grandmother became ill with stomach cancer Robert and his family needed to find assistance in the home for her. After many trials and tribulations Robert could see that there was a great need for quality home care services here in NJ and loved the idea of being able to assist other families who were going through what his family went through with his beloved grandmother.
Thus, Robert had found his passion. After almost a year of preparation Robert opened Helping Hands Homecare in 2003. Robert wanted Helping Hands Homecare to focus on providing the highest quality of caregivers, exceptional customer service, and providing a service that familys could depend on in their time of need. Since then Helping Hands has assisted hundreds of individuals with the simplest of needs to more complex cases while preserving those standards set out many years ago.
Robert is a Google Verified Author
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