If you’ll be reading aloud to a person with dementia, choose something that you think might spark a particular memory – An old engagement announcement from a scrapbook could work, or a long-saved letter or newspaper clipping from a meaningful event.Ī biography of a familiar entertainer or historic figure, political leader or inventor may be of interest. What is the best material to read to someone? If they are able, ask them to read aloud to you as well. Reading aloud to the person who’s hospitalized may be beneficial. Which, in turn, could lead to re-hospitalization. This can be due to fatigue, unusual sleep hours, or stress, amongst other things.Įven though this post-hospital loss of cognition is often temporary, it may result in an inability to understand and follow discharge instructions. It turns out that elderly patients who have no documented cognitive loss before hospitalization can suffer a loss of cognition on discharge. He acknowledges that in care homes, hospitals and mental health facilities, “shared reading is one of the most significant developments to have taken place in mental health practice in the last ten years.” Reading to an elderly person during a lengthy hospital stay can make their discharge home more successful
The Reader calls reading aloud “a simple, non-medical yet powerful intervention which is proven to improve well-being, reduce isolation and strengthen communities.”ĭr.David Fearnley, Medical Director at Mersey Care Centre in the UK concurs. They highlight the shared reading group called The Reader in the UK, which helps bring people together to read great literature. The Guardian recently reported on the less medical, but equally important benefits of reading aloud, especially in a group setting. Reading to someone can be very relaxing More benefits of reading to someone What does this tell us? Reading aloud, whether to someone else or even to oneself, activates the frontal cortex and may have a role in helping to rehabilitate the cognitive functions of Alzheimer patients. significantly higher score for independence at follow-up.significantly higher MMSE (Mini Mental Status Examination) performance than the control group at follow-up.significantly higher scores for conceptualization.
improved verbal communication with the nursing staff.The Alzheimer patients, either at the end of the study or later, showed: What they found was that after only six months, those with Alzheimer’s showed a statistically significant functional improvement in their frontal cortex when compared with the control group. They reported the results of the study in The Journals of Gerontology. In 2005, Japanese researchers studied the effect of reading to oneself, reading aloud and solving arithmetic problems among 16 Alzheimer patients and 16 healthy persons in a control group.
The act of reading aloud is so powerful, it can actually change your brain! In addition, some elderly people find reading to themselves difficult or impossible - they may be fatigued from their daily activities, their cognitive or visual abilities may not be as sharp as they once were, or your listener simply may not be strong enough to hold up a heavy book for more than a few minutes at a time. There are a multitude of reasons to read aloud! Or, you may simply want to allow your listener to be in on what you’re reading, whether it’s an informational pamphlet or interesting piece of news. Reading a novel out loud can calm an anxious listener by engaging their imagination. Reading a news article out loud can be a great way to stimulate a discussion or a debate. In her book, The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction, author Meghan Cox Gurdon says that reading aloud to someone is “a miraculous alchemy…that converts the ordinary stuff of life – a book, a voice, a place to sit, a bit of time – into astonishing fuel for the heart, the mind, and the imagination.”