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.

Late life is characterized by great diversity in memory and other cognitive functions. Although a substantial proportion of older adults suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia, a majority retain a high level of cognitive skills throughout the life span. Identifying factors that sustain and enhance cognitive well-being is a growing area of original and translational research. In 2009, there are as many as 5.2 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease, and that figure is expected to grow to as many as 16 million by 2050. One in six women and one in 10 men who live to be at least age 55 will develop Alzheimer’s disease in their remaining lifetime. Approximately 10 million of the 78 million baby boomers who were alive in 2008 can expect to develop Alzheimer’s disease. Seventy percent of people with Alzheimer’s disease live at home, cared for by family and friends. In 2008, 9.8 million family members, friends, and neighbors provided unpaid care for someone with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia. The direct costs to Medicare and Medicaid for care of people with Alzheimer’s disease amount to more than $148 billion annually (from Alzheimer’s Association, 2008 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures). This book will highlight the research foundations behind brain fitness interventions as well as showcase innovative community-based programs to maintain and promote mental fitness and intervene with adults with cognitive impairment. The emphasis is on illustrating the nuts and bolts of setting up and utilizing cognitive health programs in the community, not just the laboratory.