Great starts are easy, the goal is to finish well
There is a growing amount of evidence that music is able to reduce anxiety and revive fading memories hidden deep inside your loved one’s brain. But suppose neither you nor your loved one was ever really a music person? Is it possible to activate those memories by other means?
Even though singing is a wonderful trigger for awakening memories that are hard to rouse, other activities that hold significance to your loved one can also stir up dormant memories.
After several years of settling into our new community, we thought we were pretty much acquainted with all its unique culture and customs. Well, one day when a senior’s group we are involved with mentioned thabeginning line dance class, it sounded like fun, so we signed up. As it turned out, it was a ton of fun – but way different than I imagined it would be. My experience with line dancing has been limited to the Western music genres. I was quite surprised when the dance instructor began to play the first song. It was an incredibly catchy R&B/Hip Hop song called ‘The Cupid Shuffle’.
When our oldest granddaughter was around two years old, her favorites things were strawberries, swinging, and ‘dance-dance-2’. The dance program was a video game that included a dance pad. The idea was to watch the TV screen and place your feet where the animated characters placed theirs. Some friends of mine and I discovered it when volunteering at our church’s youth group. Watching the kids play the game, we saw how much fun it was, and what a great form of exercise it offered.
She toddled over to one of the residents, smiled and reached her hand out to grab her walker. It was as if she put a nickel in the older lady.