The Montessori Method For Alzheimer’S Care
doc Montessori believed devoutly (as do we) that every somebody deserves to endure treated alongside abide by together with compassion. She encourages us to celebrate each person’s private gifts.
By Tom together with Karen Brenner
He showtime stacked the pinkish tower cubes from the largest to the smallest, real tardily together with carefully placing the smallest cube correct inwards the oculus on top. He leaned dorsum together with smiled at this accomplishment. Then the pinkish tower was carefully dismantled and, to our amazement, reassembled upside down!
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This fourth dimension the smallest cube became the supporting base of operations every bit the painstaking chore of edifice the tower upside downwards rose earlier our eyes. Once again, the grinning of dandy satisfaction lit upwardly his face. Our faces must select reflected the absolute astonishment nosotros felt watching Pastor Pat, a human being living alongside both Alzheimer’s together with Parkinson’s disease, construct together with re-build the pinkish tower alongside such command together with such concentration.
However, our astonishment grew fifty-fifty greater every bit nosotros watched this human being rising from his chair together with walk unassisted across the room. The aides ran to give him a supporting hand, merely he waved them away, walking ramrod at nowadays together with alongside dandy purpose.
Of course, the trembling together with the unsteady gait would provide later, merely for those few moments, this human being had command over his body, he experienced the joy of challenging himself together with succeeding inwards that challenge. Just every bit children construct confidence when they attain mastery alongside the Montessori materials, therefore older people also sense a sense of good being, of move when working alongside the Montessori materials. The materials that nosotros usage inwards working alongside people living alongside Alzheimer’s gain from tabular array scrubbing to bloom arranging, textile matching to knobbed cylinders, flags of the footing to living/not living, paradigm together with drum circles.
These are alone a few examples of the exercises together with materials that nosotros usage inwards our work. When nosotros adhere to the Montessori principles together with construct a aid plan based on the needs together with interests of each older person, nosotros detect that nosotros are alone limited past times our ain imagination.
Each practise that nosotros do is built on the Montessori principles of using repetitive musculus retention (the procedural retention system) together with engaging some or all of the v senses.
For example, nosotros select created a line-fishing tackle box practise inwards which nosotros select matching lures (hooks removed), bobbers that tin endure graded from largest to smallest together with matching photos of fish.
This tackle box came inwards real handy when nosotros met Chet, who was living inwards a locked Alzheimer’s unit. He was a somebody who liked to popular off along himself to himself together with rarely joined inwards activities.
We had ofttimes tried to engage Chet, merely he would e'er politely spend upwardly our invitation. One 24-hour interval nosotros brought inwards the tackle box together with of a abrupt Chet was there, picking upwardly the lures, examining the line-fishing reel, looking at the photos of the fish. From that 24-hour interval forward, Chet was e'er happy to piece of occupation alongside us. He never remembered our names, nor did he recall that nosotros met alongside him almost every week. But, he did recall that tackle box.
In creating exercises that capture people’s interests, nosotros detect that objects from nature select a truthful resonance for people who at nowadays alive most of their lives indoors. Once nosotros brought inwards fresh herbs from our garden for a matching exercise. We tied upwardly bunches of sage, thyme, lavender, mint, together with rosemary.
There was a rather mutual frigidity together with aloof professor living inwards this retention enhancement center. He was ofttimes sarcastic together with biting to the staff together with other residents. We were surprised when he picked upwardly the sage leaves together with began to rub them against his cheek. He softly started to sing, “Are y'all going to Scarborough Fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary together with thyme.”
Tears rolled downwards his cheeks every bit he spoke of his mother’s garden together with how she had grown her ain herbs.
We had never seen this professor limited whatever emotion except a haughty arrogance to everyone unopen to him. These unproblematic herbs brought forth heartfelt stories of his childhood together with his mother. Without the herbs, nosotros would select never seen this side of the professor. Using the Montessori Method gives us the fundamental to unlock memories that may select been buried for many years.
One of the most hard aspects of living alongside Alzheimer’s is the inability to get a task, or to start a conversation. When a somebody is living alongside retention loss, they demand sensory cues to human activity every bit guideposts for them.
Even though the senses may endure degraded inwards an older person, nosotros detect that most people nevertheless taste touching a bloom petal, hearing their favorite music, reading a much loved poem, tasting a favorite dish, smelling a freshly mowed lawn. All of these sense memories are powerful together with therefore helpful inwards priming the pump of memory.
We saw the powerfulness of this i 24-hour interval when working alongside Bob, who loved vintage cars. We created a hub cap polishing practise for Bob using non toxic metallic polish. We idea that polishing the hub caps mightiness give Bob the cues he needed to verbalize most his vintage automobile collection. However, Bob didn’t desire to verbalize most his cars, he wanted to verbalize most the fourth dimension he served inwards Vietnam.
At first, nosotros didn’t sympathise why the hub caps led to stories most the war, merely therefore nosotros realized that polishing the hub caps must select triggered Bob’s memories of polishing his brass together with his boots inwards the army. If nosotros had asked Bob to verbalize most his years inwards Viet Nam without giving him some prompt or cue, he would select probable said nothing; merely giving him the hub caps to smoothen helped Bob opened upwardly up most his state of war fourth dimension memories.
Music is some other wonderful tool for reaching people living alongside Alzheimer’s.
One of the most enjoyable times inwards our piece of occupation is when nosotros select out drums for a drum circle. The groups unremarkably get inwards a chaos of sound, together with then, gradually, they detect a mutual rhythm out together with they all get to hitting their drums together. It is a wonderfully bonding experience.
We usage the Montessori Method every bit our foundation for interacting alongside people living alongside retention loss because this philosophy believes inwards finding together with edifice on the strengths of each person.
The Montessori Method also teaches us to piece of occupation alongside the whole person, the intellectual, physical together with spiritual components of the individual.
doc Montessori believed devoutly (as do we) that every somebody deserves to endure treated alongside abide by together with compassion. She encourages us to celebrate each person’s private gifts together with to award each person’s contribution, whether they are 3 years quondam or 83 years old!
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