Memory Help for Senior Citizens

Simple Ideas to Help Elderly People Retain and Recall Memories

© Janienne Jennrich

Aug 25, 2007
Picture of Senior with Special Friends, Photo by Janienne Jennrich
Elderly seniors can forget even people and places they love. Read how to gently jog memory and relate to forgetful senior citizens with easy everyday activities.

It can be very difficult to watch our beloved senior citizens lose precious memories and mental capacity, forget those they love, and even sometimes begin to lose their very unique personalities. How can important memories be kept alive and precious minds be kept active?

Simple Ideas for Everyday Activities to Help with Memory and Recall

  • Pictures are indeed worth a thousand words.Make scrapbooks of very special memories and review them with your elder often. Put pictures in frames and ad captions of names, dates and events. Hang them in often-seen areas.

  • Save greeting cards and holiday pictures received by your senior, especially from old friends and loved ones. Re-reading personal letters and viewing pictures can jog memories.

  • Write notes to remind seniors who you or others are. If someone is forgetting who you are and they can see well enough, try wearing a name tag like "My name is Sandy. You are my Aunt. I love you."

  • When visiting someone you seldom see, try wearing your hair and clothes in a similar fashion each time so you are more memorable.

  • For more alert seniors, or those who want to keep memories before they are lost, good reviews are coming in for a handheld game by Nintendo called Brain Age.

  • Play the children's game Memory. Buy a boxed game or use a deck of cards.

  • Ask your senior questions about childhood pets, homes, games and friends.

For more information about senior living, see this Squidoo Seniors page.

Get a Doctor's Opinion of the Problems Causing the Memory Loss

Memory loss can be caused by many things, such as head injury that causes hemorrhaging in the brain, a reaction to a medication, Alzheimer's disease, strokes, AIDS, high fever, dehydration, hydrocephalus, systemic lupus erythematosus, Lyme disease, long-term drug or alcohol abuse, vitamin deficiencies/poor nutrition, hypothyroidism or hypercalcemia, multiple sclerosis, brain tumor, or diseases such as Pick's, Parkinson's, Creutzfeldt-Jakob, or Huntington's according to the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, College of Medicine. (Oct. 2004 Topic: Dementia)

And remember, above all, to cherish the special moments with your special senior. Senior citizens are a national treasure.


The copyright of the article Memory Help for Senior Citizens in Seniors/Grandparents is owned by Janienne Jennrich. Permission to republish Memory Help for Senior Citizens in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.


Picture of Senior with Special Friends, Photo by Janienne Jennrich
       


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