This is a good activity for when you’re waiting somewhere and need something to keep you and the person with memory loss entertained. If you’re like me, you always have a few receipts floating around in your purse or pocket, so pull those suckers out and put them to good use! You can ask the person with memory loss to tell you how much each or all of the items on the receipt would have cost when they were young (examples:”How much was a gallon of milk and a box of cereal?” or “How much did a week’s worth of groceries cost you?”). Or, you can make it a game and see if they can guess how much an item costs today (using the receipts as proof, or course!). receipts are also a way to start conversations about items that were rationed during WWII and the clever and not-so-clever substitutes people used.
Of course, you don’t HAVE to have a receipt on you to reminisce about these topics, but they can give you ideas. Besides, it can be fun to see the shock on someone’s face when they are presented with proof that gas no longer costs 25 cents a gallon!
Alison Willliams said
Not sure if you’ve heard of this yet, but there’s an AWESOME new game set out there that just got developed for dementia/Alzheimers patients. It’s called Mind Design Games – Memory Care Activity Set. Here’s the link to the website if you’d like to check it out… https://www.minddesigngames.com/. I’ve seen it in action and it changes lives!