Dementia Games to Help with Memory Loss – Alzheimer’s and Dementia

Whether you or one of your loved ones is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, the experience of dealing with memory loss can be a painful and stressful one.  Your loved one forgets who you are and about the memories shared with the family you built.

If you’re the one suffering from memory loss, you are constantly frustrated and trying to remember even the simplest of things, like where you put your keys or how to use an iron.  But there are some simple, easy, and fun ways to incorporate exercises to improve your memory skills while still playing a game and feeling normal.

Keeping your mind or the mind of your loved one suffering from memory loss active is a key way of combating this disease.  Although Alzheimer’s disease and the different dementia stages cannot be cured, there are some fun games that you can play with your loved one to increase memory skills and combat the plaguing experience of memory loss.

Matching Cards

Remember when you were a kid and you used to play those card matching games?  Well, try breaking out those old picture cards and giving it another try.  Look through the stack of picture cards to re-familiarize yourself or your loved one with them.  Play with the cards face up first, so that the concept and rules of the game are clear and less frustrating initially.  Then start small, try laying them out, image side down, with four rows of four cards.  Try matching as many cards as you can.  The trick is, when you don’t make a match, you have to remember what image you saw where so that if you turn over that image again, you can remember where you saw it the first time.

If you notice that you or your loved one is improving with this small amount of rows, then gradually increase the number of cards and images that you use until you get to a point that seems more challenging.  This will help nurture you or your loved one’s short term memory loss, and is a fun and interactive dementia memory games of slowing the progression of memory loss.

Sounds

Remember that game some of us played as kids called Concentration?  Well, this old school game can also be used to help combat short term memory loss and can be designed to help remember and repeat sequences of sounds and words.  Play with a limited number of people, so that the one suffering with memory loss won’t feel overwhelmed, and start with a limited number of sounds and words, perhaps two to get your feet wet.

Make a sound and say a word, then ask the sufferer to repeat the sequence.  After it’s successfully repeated, it is then their turn to make up a sequence of sound and word.  As they show improvement, increase the number of sounds and words in the sequence making sure not to make it too complicated.  The easier, the more fun, the less frustrating, the better and more effective the actual game is.

Puzzles

Puzzles are another great way to turn memory loss treatment into a game.  Simple puzzles for kids, with bigger pieces and less complicated pieces are a great way to help with image association and memory.  Crossword puzzles, word searches, or beginner’s Sudoku puzzles are also facilitative ways of working against the progression of memory loss and help keep the mind active and functional.

Sarah writes for a discount vouchers website where you can find Argos discount vouchers and Comet.co.uk discount codes.