dementia expert

It has been well established that music can calm a person with dementia. Recently, however, research has shown that musical memories are tied into a person’s emotions which is why a nonverbal person who has dementia may start to sing a familiar song after months of saying nothing at all.

What are the “tricks” to making this happen? Actually they are not tricks but common sense strategies.
The person must have enjoyed music earlier in life. Since most people like some kind of music, we can assume that the majority of folks with dementia are music lovers of some sort
It is important to know some of the favorite songs of the mwmbers of your audience. Depending on the age of the person with dementia, certain songs were popular when persons with dementia were young.
Also many with dementia were church goers and were quite familiar with religious music.
Still others enjoyed certain ethnic songs.

So then how do we pick what songs to play?

A brain imaging machine would be nice but not practical
Asking family members and friends what music partcular people with dementia,enjoyed is a possibility. Make sure to write down this information in a location all can view.

What if there are no family members or friends to ask? What then?

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