Once your dad’s doctor has diagnosed him as having Alzheimer’s, a couple of things will happen. First, your dad will start taking medications designed to help slow the disease’s progression. Second, there will be suggestions on ways to help exercise the brain. Memory games are one of the best ways to keep exercising the brain after an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Home care services aides can include this activity in their duties.
Here are seven games that your family and home care services aides can play together with your loved one.
Animal Bingo
Active Minds created Animal Bingo specifically for adults with dementia. Instead of reading letters and numbers on a bingo card, this game has players finding and marking animals’ pictures. It makes it easier to play but still works on quickly memory retention skills.
Memory
Memory is one of the most basic memory games, and there are several versions. The game is simple and has players flipping cards over in pairs to try to find matches. Remembering where the matching cards are from previous turns is essential.
Qwirkle
The goal in Qwirkle is to create lines of matching colors or symbols using wood tiles. Each tile has a colored shape. The goal is to form the longest matching line of colors and symbols to get the highest score.
Spontuneous
This game is all about songs you know from all of the decades. Players choose a card that has a triggering word. Everyone then sings a song that has that word in the lyrics. People must be able to sign at least five words, including the triggering word, in order to move ahead on the game board.
Stone Soup
Stone Soup is a board game based on the popular children’s novel. Players have to match ingredients to cook the soup. Work in teams to find the matches you need.
Ticket to Ride
In this train game, memory skills are needed to help you quickly remember the best routes so that you’re collecting the right color cards. Timing is important as another player is likely competing for the same routes, so you want to be first.
The World Game
The World Game is good in the early stages of dementia. It’s a board and card game where players have to figure out where in the world a card matches. The cards show the name of the capital city and the country’s flag. It’s up to the player to find the correct country on the map to win a point.
How Home Care Services Can Help
Caring for your dad is often challenging as there’s a conflict with the change of becoming a parent to your parent. Make sure you’re focusing on your own needs for socialization and self-care, too. Hire home care services to provide you with the time to visit friends, run errands, and have time alone.
Home care services like respite care are important to both you and your dad. It gives you a chance to de-stress, and it allows him to meet someone new and enjoy companionship with someone else. Call to make arrangements.
If you or an aging loved-one is considering Home Care Services in Alexandria VA please contact the caring staff at Apex Classic Home Health Care today. (571) 275-9547
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