Experts advise encouraging the reading habit among people with Alzheimer's

Encouraging and maintaining the habit of reading helps to maintain the activity and cognitive functions of people with Alzheimer's. This is what the experts from Fundació ACE-Barcelona Alzheimer Treatment & Research Center indicate, who, within the framework of the celebration of Sant Jordi's Day, recommend promoting reading among people with dementia as a tool for working on language and memory.

Although reading ability is one of the processes that people lose later, it is common that, progressively, they abandon this practice because of the effort involved in following the thread of the story and keeping their attention on what they are reading.

In view of this situation, the experts at Fundació ACE recommend that family members and caregivers of people with dementia facilitate this activity by accompanying them in their reading and making a book or a newspaper available to them or by writing, for example, a short text in clear writing.

For more than 25 years, the professionals of Fundació ACE have been carrying out an Integral Psychostimulation Program (IPP), through which users attend workshops and group activities to activate and work on their physical, intellectual and social capacities. Reading, physical exercise, music or art are some of the elements used by the Day Care Unit as tools to stimulate their abilities and also their memories.

Adapting reading to the needs of the person with Alzheimer's

Amèrica Morera, deputy director of the Day Care Unit of Fundació ACE, recommends that family members and caregivers take into account the specific needs of the person and the stage of the illness in order to adapt and facilitate readings. "If we manage to adapt the readings to the needs and interests of the person with Alzheimer's, we can make this activity attractive to them and even allow them to remember vital aspects or emotions", Morera says. 

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