Working in the assisted living site, most of the residents I worked with were in different stages of dementia. Interacting with these residents, I observed some of the signs and symptoms of memory loss such as asking the same questions over and repeating the same story again and again. In most of our sessions, I've noticed some residents asking us the date or time of the day repetitively in a short span of time. Also, some residents would never recognize us and were always curious about where we were from. We had to keep re-introducing ourselves and let them know we were there for arts and crafts at the beginning of each activity. I also noticed a lot of verbal problems we talked about in class. There were some residents that had mild word-finding difficulty with occasional semantic paraphasia even though their speech remained fluent and grammatically correct. In contrast there were some residents who talked in incomplete sentences and had a very monotonous tone with no facial expressions. .
During my time spent with the residents, I learned a lot about how to effectively communicate with residents with dementia. It is very important to be patient and answer repetitive questions like it is the first time they're asking it. We always have to remember that they still have feelings and emotions even though they may not always understand what we're saying. I also learned to use positive body language and touch because this is an important part of communication. Reality orientation is another strategy to help confusion in elderly with dementia (Erber, 2009). As discussed in class, we used short, simple sentences and help orientate the residents by describing what we're about to do while starting an activity. Residents with severe dementia always need one-on-one help. During the activity, instead of just showing the samples and assuming they know how to do it, it is a lot more helpful when you demonstrate the task and guide them though it.
