Competition

I am blessed to be one of eight siblings. They are on my mind this week because I have been reflecting on their support of me as a person and of my plunge into the pursuit of this business that has been a dream for so many years.
Although we have had our sibling rivalries growing up and we have had our differences and disagreements, we are a group of men and women who pull together when needed and have a good time being together on those rare occasions when we have the opportunity to be so. It amazes me when we are together, that eight people, growing up in the very same household, can reflect back to youth and see things so differently.
When I realize my brothers, who love sports and root hard for their Steelers and Pirates and Penguins, do not have the need to compete with each other in areas of relationship, it gives me pause. In the important things, I am blessed to be in a family who does not fight to have the controlling say.
But when it comes to the fun of competing, especially since my sons grew up as avid Browns fans, we join many on the planet cheering on our favorites and doing our best when playing in sports and games.
Competition is part of so many lives. However, for numerous individuals who are diagnosed with dementia, the fun of competition is reduced or stopped altogether. In looking at stages and the reduced abilities of the person, very often the skills remaining are overlooked. Nevertheless, over the years, I have watched countless people with advancing memory loss continue to enjoy competing and winning. I think of the man who continued to enjoy bowling and golf, needing guidance through cuing, but still trying for the strike and the hole in one. There was a woman I worked with who was great at dominoes and continued to play the game even though other abilities had diminished significantly. Early in my career, I remember playing checkers with a gentleman with Alzheimer’s disease, whose goal was to beat me each time we played. It wasn’t hard since I was not the best player, but the point is that the desire to compete was still very much in tact.
There are so many ways to continue to give the person with memory loss the fun of friendly competition through activity pursuits. If the person can no longer go to the bowling alley there are games like skittles that can be done at home. There is shuffleboard, indoor horseshoes, and target throws. One very simple game that is fun to do begins with a deck of cards and dice. Stack the cards upside down and turn over the top card. Then take turns with the person to see who can be the first to roll the die to get the number on the card.
In our Brainy Day Program, the activity that became our answer to bringing competition back into the life of the person with dementia is table top bocce. This is such a fun game! The game consists of plastic disks with foam “bumper” edges. There two discs each of four colors and a white disk which is the leading disk. The white disk is thrown toward the middle of the table and then each player throws their colored disks toward the white one and tries to be the one to get closest. Whoever is closest wins the round and is the one to start the next round by throwing out the white disk. One of the most fun results in this game was watching one woman wheel her chair in such a way that she could place her disk next to the white one. The game was just the two of us and we had a great time laughing over her “win”. What I learned as we were engaged in the match was that once she learned the object of the game, her desire to succeed by winning was still there. What a joy the interaction was for both of us.
Find ways to let the person with memory loss engage in competition. It can be of benefit to everyone. Mary Ann