Making Brain Games Your New Hobby
To find a way to keep your loved one’s brain active and healthy, start by thinking about the types of activities or hobbies your loved one likes best.
To keep the brain as healthy as possible, the saying “use it or lose it” is key. Even for our loved ones in the earlier stages of Alzheimer’s disease or a related memory loss disorder, many parts of their brain are untouched by the illness. A routine of daily brain exercise can help keep those healthy parts of the brain healthy longer and has been shown to delay the overall progression of Alzheimer’s disease as well. That’s what we call a Win-Win!
To find a way to keep your loved one’s brain active and healthy, start by thinking about the types of activities or hobbies your loved one likes best. Often these are a good starting point. Are they happy with a solitary activity such as reading? Or do they prefer group activities like singing in a choir or playing pickleball? How about a hands-on creative hobby such as gardening or enjoying concerts and art exhibits? No matter what activity it is, pursuing hobbies regularly will keep their mind and body active, and in some cases allow them to engage more deeply in social activities.
As you think over the specific activities your loved one may enjoy, try to think of ways to increase the chances for their success. For example, if your loved one is in the early stage of their disease, they may be fully capable of reading a set of directions for an art project, for example. If their illness has progressed, however, it may be better to include pictorial instructions, or for you to do a live demonstration of how to do the task, and perhaps join in the activity, at least at first.
If your loved one undergoes mood shifts, consider scheduling their hobby sessions at a certain time of day, for instance, when they are most calm and alert.
A final area to consider is that your loved one may or may not be able to participate in a certain activity or hobby in a manner that they used to. A bit of planning ahead, however, might allow them to complete and enjoy the activity. Since Alzheimer’s disease or a related disorder is now impacting your loved one’s day-to-day cognitive ability, it may be that their favorite hobby needs to be adapted for this new reality.
In some cases, it may be necessary to find new hobbies that are better suited for them. Understanding the changes that occur in your loved one due to Alzheimer’s, and adapting activities accordingly, can help your loved one maintain a routine of cognitive activity which in turn can help your loved one’s overall quality of life amid the progression of a difficult disease.
Here’s how Alzheimer’s might affect various hobbies, and ways you might help your loved one to adapt to allow them to successfully purse an activity they enjoy.
Cognitive Decline: Alzheimer’s can impair your loved one’s memory, making it difficult to recall the rules of a game or the various steps involved in cooking a recipe. Your loved one may suffer from confusion trying to follow complex directions, and their shorter attention span may reduce their ability to concentrate for long periods.
HOW TO ADAPT: Break down the steps of a hobby into simplified, more manageable steps. If your loved one used to play a card game such as bridge, play as a duo. Or they might still enjoy cards by playing a simpler game like “war”. You can also consider adjusting or relaxing the rules and eliminating score keeping as a way to focus on the enjoyment of playing not the outcome.
If your loved one enjoys creative activities consider finding adult kits for watercolor, pencil, ink drawings, or clay. Realize you may need to help them get started or do the activity alongside them, depending on their abilities.
Physical Changes: As Alzheimer’s progresses, your loved one may lose their coordination, dexterity, and fine motor skills, making hobbies such as knitting or model-building difficult. Your loved one may also undergo decreased mobility, hampering their ability to do gardening or go hiking.
HOW TO ADAPT: Seek out adaptive tools that make using them easier, such as tools with an ergonomic design, are made of lightweight aluminum or fiberglass, and have safety guards built in. Raise flowerpots on benches so that gardening can be done by your loved one from a seated position. Find puzzles and models that use larger pieces to make handling them easier.
Emotional Distress: Your loved one may have more difficulty dealing with their emotions, expressing frustration over not being able to complete tasks in hobbies that were once easier to do, for example, or being reluctant to engage in hobbies that involve being in a social setting.
HOW TO ADAPT: Encourage your loved one to focus on the enjoyment of the hobby, not on the outcome. Engage in hobbies that are familiar to them, or simpler versions of the ones they used to do, but in the same vein. Invite them to join with groups of people doing a hobby who are similar in their overall abilities.
Sensory Processing: As your loved one’s disease progresses, they may have more difficulty processing sensory inputs that are coming all at once, causing them to be overstimulated. Alzheimer’s may also change how your loved one perceives depth, spatial relationships, or colors.
HOW TO ADAPT: Create a quiet and calm environment where your loved one can engage in their hobbies. Choose tools and hobby pieces that have high-contrast colors, or other visual features that distinguish them from each other.
Adapting Specific Hobbies to Your Loved One’s Abilities:
Music: If your loved one played a musical instrument, find a simpler version of them, such as a ukulele to substitute for a guitar. Or give them bongos or a tambourine to keep the rhythm of their favorite tunes.
Visual Arts: Get them paint sets with larger brushes, or “Paint By Sticker” books, which use sticky bits of plastic that fit to a lattice on a page to create stained-glassed-like artwork.
Reading: Introduce your loved one to the joys of listening to audiobooks or find books that are specialized with larger print.
Numbers: For former engineers and other fans of mathematics consider finding math workbooks with problems they can solve. If your loved one specialized in the sciences as a career, you can consider get them a basic atom building kit or planetarium.
Gardening/Hiking: Get a garden “scooter” for safer mobility. For hikers, try walking in a botanical garden, where the paths are smoother and flat, but there is still plenty of nature. Or consider getting an indoor treadmill and placing it near a TV screen that can show nature videos to them as they walk.
Remember we are all unique, and how Alzheimer’s and dementia affects an individual varies significantly from person to person. Strive to create hobbies and activities that fit your loved one’s specific interests and stage of abilities. The key is to give them things to enjoy in the process, not just in the result, and to stimulate their minds while giving them opportunities to be with others.
