Jacob St.

Laurent

Activity Title: Calendar Flashback

Sources:

Charles C. Dixon, M. S. (n.d.). Reminiscing Activities.

https://www.recreationtherapy.com/tx/txrem.htm.

Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. (2019, April 19). Dementia.
Mayo Clinic.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dementia/symptoms-causes/syc-2
0352013.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Adapting Activities for
People with Alzheimer's Disease. National Institute on Aging.
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/adapting-activities-people-alzheimers-disease#:~:te
xt=Going%20Out,you%20are%20comfortable%20with%20them.

Equipment needed: Piece of paper, pencil

Activity Description: The objective of this activity is to encourage participants to

reminisce about their past with hopes of invoking and sharing memories they may have
forgotten. In addition, this can be used to help participants think back to part of their life
and appreciate how much they have accomplished.

1. Have the participants write each year of their life in a single column.
2. Ask participants to write down next to each year a specific event that occurred
during that year.
3. These events can be personal or something that happened in the world.
4. After writing as much as they can within every year’s column, have participants
share with the group and have conversation about events.
5. Encourage participants to dig deep and write as much as they remember, if they
don’t have something for a certain year that is okay. After the full discussion they
may remember something to write based on other participants’ answers.

Primary social interaction pattern(s): The social interaction patterns of this activity are,
extraindividual and intragroup. The first part of this activity is involved between just the
person and the task of writing, no one else needs to be involved. In the second half of
the activity, participants are conversing together and aiding in each other remembering
events of the past.

Adaptation: Early onset dementia affects memory, social interaction and critical thinking
processes. This means that it may take time for participants to complete certain tasks or
think of words when it comes to communicating. In addition, dementia can also affect
participants' visual and spatial abilities, planning, organizing and coordination. In order
to help adapt this activity for participants with early onset dementia, the facilitator can
aid the participant by breaking up the activity into seperate parts so they don’t find it
overwhelming. Instead of writing something for every single year, the participant can
write something for each decade. This will allow them to feel less overwhelmed and
have less taking up their mind so they have an easier time recollecting.

Participant: 75-year-old woman diagnosed with early onset dementia