Finding activities for the gentleman who used to like to fiddle with tools or gadgets can be hard. As changes in the brain occur, the corresponding impairments in memory, spatial relations, and fine motor skills can make using tools a safety risk. However, someone who liked the feel of grease under their nails probably isn’t going to be taking up cross stitch anytime soon. The solution? Enlist the person with memory loss to help organize the workshop by sorting nuts, bolts, washers, etc. These fasteners are smooth and the task can be made easier or harder depending on the person’s ability. Make the activity easier by only separating nuts from bolts, for example. Make it harder by sorting bolts, washers, etc by size. Keep fingers limber by asking the person to pair nuts and bolts together by hand threading them into sets.
dayswithgramps said
We have found that this works really well. Gramps gets to use his brain and he doesn’t need much direction when sorting objects.