Word Play

Hi Everyone.
December was a wonderful new month for our company as we had to order our second shipment of product to sell. We have been generating so much excitement in various places because the chance for new, fun, and user friendly activities is beneficial for the person with dementia as well as those providing care.

This week some specific questions were asked regarding the items in our Brainy Day Program www.hippocampus-hq.com so I thought I would take time in the posts of the next several weeks to share each item, why we decided to make that product part of our program, and how it can be helpful to use with a person in varying stages of dementia.

I am going to start with Word Rummy.

Word Rummy is a deck of letter cards. There are so many ways to use them and they can give various opportunities for a person to stimulate the brain with letter recognition, word finding, word recognition, spelling, critical thinking skills and simple word games.

Over the years that I have worked in this field, I have experienced, time after time, that simple, fun, word games are motivational. One of the things I enjoyed doing on a regular basis at a nursing home where I worked, was to have a word game in an area where there was much traffic so everyone could join in to play. There was a dry erase board in the dining room of one facility which was the perfect venue to engage everyone. I would write the letters of the alphabet in columns on the board with a line extended from each letter. Then we chose a topic. If the topic was animals, then everyone had to think of animals that started with each letter. It was great busy time while waiting for meals and it was very interactive between staff and residents.

It is just as easy to do something like this in the home with a smaller dry erase board. It is good for thinking and does not take much time to create and the topics are many. Male names, female names, food, things related to music, pets, things found in the kitchen etc. etc.

With the word rummy, I always enjoyed doing the same type of thing by turning over each card and asking the person to think of something that started with that letter. Or if they were at a place where word finding was difficult, then naming the letter or using the cards to spell out a word was beneficial. Scrambling the letters of a word and then working together to form the word is another game and most people, even in advancing stages of dementia, can often recognize the letters of their name. (Then you can sing The Name Game for fun).

The reason we chose Word Rummy for our Brainy Day program is to give back some word challenges to the person who loved word search or crosswords or scrabble and can no longer do them as they once did. The English teacher, the librarian, or someone who loved to read, or enjoyed languages and can no longer participate in those activities as they did before, can frequently find the chance at some satisfaction of working with the letters and words at a different level.
Very often the words are a good way for reminiscing to happen. I can think of a time when I was working with a gentleman who used to speak several languages and using the cards to think up words, he said a French word. It was a great opportunity to trigger some thought about when he was in France and even to think up some other French words. It was a short session for remembering, but the important thing was that it was a connection.

Another way to use them that can be fun is to tell a story. You start with “once upon a time there was a ________ (then you turn over the card and think of a story word that starts with that letter.) Continue the story in any way you want, turning over cards and thinking up words that start with the letter shown, It can be a crazy story or one that unveils feelings or one that makes no sense but creates laughter.

So many people diagnosed with dementia lose their language skills. Since words are part of our lives from a very young age, the loss of these abilities can be frustrating for everyone affected by the loss. Both the person with the dementia as well as those supporting him or her, can feel the effects. That is why using the word rummy in the Brainy day Program became an important choice for us to make.

Have fun with letters and words. They can open a pathway and be a detour that was not considered. All of us can benefit from going back to basics. But most important – enjoy – there are no pressures to get it right. Use your time as an opportunity to connect and then just take pleasure in being together. Mary Ann