Brain exercises or “brain training” are often used in the care of elderly people with dementia. Suitable topics about which you as a volunteer, activity leader or welfare worker can ask questions are themes that seniors with dementia still have memories of. A subject such as autumn (or the other seasons) is ideally suited. They have experienced autumn not only in their youth, but throughout their entire lives! Such an autumn quiz can stimulate and train their memory and bring back pleasant memories. Moreover, you bring nature into the care center or nursing home. Great for the elderly with Alzheimer’s, for example, because they rarely go outside anymore, let alone in the great outdoors!
Why is autumn a suitable topic for a quiz with people with dementia?
In more than one respect, autumn is a suitable theme for a quiz to evoke memories of autumn in the elderly through a question and answer game.Childhood memories of autumn In people with dementia, their memory is often severely affected. But the best stored in their brains are the memories from their school years and their young adulthood. So, for example, memories of looking for chestnuts, acorns and beechnuts or beautifully colored leaves that have fallen from the trees in the autumn.
Autumn: a quiz topic for almost all elderly people
Another reason why autumn is a successful topic for a quiz with seniors who suffer from dementia as a result of some disease is that all seniors have had to deal with it. Except for those elderly people who, for example, have Alzheimer’s and come from countries where our four seasons are unknown. However, you can also involve these people in the conversation by asking what it was like in their country of birth.
Also memories of autumn from phases of life other than youth
A third reason is that autumn has played a role throughout their lives. Although the best-kept memories are those from childhood and young adulthood, there may be some memories from other stages of life that you can also draw on.
Bringing autumnal phenomena of nature indoors
A fourth and final reason to choose autumn for a quiz is that you can bring a bit of nature experience into your home again. Elderly people with dementia rarely go outside. Only they would get lost. Many of these very elderly people walk poorly or no longer at all. Moreover, if they are taken outside in a wheelchair, for example, they quickly find it too cold. Logical, because because they sit still, they get cold much sooner than those who push the wheelchair.
Quiz questions about autumn for elderly people with Alzheimer’s
Guess objects
If you bring objects from outside for the quiz and show them to the elderly, you can ask them what that object is. Make sure that they cannot hurt themselves on, for example, the husk of a chestnut. It is safest if you hold the object yourself and show it to them. Besides the fact that an elderly person, possibly visually impaired, can hurt himself, he can also mistake a chestnut for a chocolate and put it in his mouth!When naming autumn fruits, you can consider:
- chestnut with husk,
- chestnut without husk,
- acorns,
- beechnuts,
- pine cones,
- winged maple seeds (helicopters),
- mushrooms (be careful because of poisonous ones),
- discolouring leaves.
Quiz questions about natural phenomena in autumn
Whether you can ask an open question in a quiz such as What happens in nature when autumn comes? depends on the stage at which the elderly with, for example, fronto-temporal dementia, who participate in the quiz, are. Open questions are generally the most difficult for them, as opposed to closed (yes/no questions) and leading questions. You can read more about asking the different types of questions in dementia in the article Open, closed and leading questions for people with dementia.More targeted or closed questions about the autumn are already easier, such as:
- Do all birds stay in the Netherlands when autumn comes?
- What does a squirrel do in the fall?
- In which season do you see the most mushrooms?
- Can you eat all mushrooms?
- What is porcini mushrooms?
- Can you name a famous mushroom?
- What happens to the leaves of the trees in the fall?
- Does it storm a lot in the fall?
- When are grapes harvested?
- Can you eat beechnuts?
- Do you know an animal that prepares for hibernation in the fall?
- Which insects crawl into the house in the fall to seek shelter from the cold?
- Is autumn a wet or dry season?
- Will the stork stay in the Netherlands when autumn comes?
- Can you eat chestnuts?
- And as a joke: Who was bouncing on a big mushroom that was red and had white dots?
How to further implement such an autumn activity as an autumn quiz for elderly people with dementia?
Just a question-and-answer game about autumn won’t fill a day. It may also be that not all participants in the autumn quiz enjoy it equally.
As a quiz leader, you can supplement the autumn quiz with, for example:
- music: think of Vivaldi, the four seasons and especially the autumn part
- reading poems about trees, such as in the series ‘Flower Children of the Trees’ by Cicely Mary Barker
- or about the bird migration ‘Three fowl sparrows’ by Annie MG Schimdt, including in ‘Ziezo, de 347 children’s verses’, Querido publishers
- sing a song about autumn: for example ‘Under mother’s umbrella’
- read a story about autumn, for example ‘Raining chestnuts’ from ‘A heart full of stories, reading book for the elderly’ from publisher SWP, Amsterdam
- Make a collage about autumn with photos or drawings
- coloring a coloring page about autumn
- putting an autumn piece on the table
- pour grape juice or put some grapes on the table to snack on, preferably without seeds
NB: You can read more about coloring with elderly people who are suffering from dementia in the dementia & crafts series.
Conclusion
Autumn is a very suitable topic for a quiz for elderly people with dementia, provided that you as a quiz leader are well prepared for the quiz. This means: formulate sufficient quiz questions, realize that sometimes more than one answer is possible, look for typical autumn objects, autumn images, autumn music and autumn poems. You already have the questions!You can get the answers up your sleeve or find them on the internet. NB: even though these elderly people can no longer go outside alone and it is often difficult to organize an outing for them, go outside and experience nature firsthand. experience remains important. For a quiz about winter, click here.
read more
- Reading about autumn in dementia: stories, poems
- Read winter stories, poems, songs to people with dementia
- Reading spring stories and poems to people with dementia
- Read summer stories and summer poems to people with dementia
- Singing autumn songs with elderly people with dementia