These short stories are designed for those with dementia who enjoy reading, but are now finding it difficult. These books are to be used for cognitive stimulation, entertainment, and calming agitation. The reader is able to follow along reading the text while listening to the audio narration.
As a doctor of psychology specializing in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, Tonia Vojtkofsky, Psy.D. is often asked by dementia caregivers in the community “what activities can my loved one do independently so I can take a break?,” and told by dementia clients how much they grieve losing the ability to read. There is so little dementia-specific entertainment on the market. Therefore, Dr. Vojtkofsky created books that are designed to entertain people with dementia by telling delightful stories about topics of interest to seniors through an audio-visual experience. This audio-visual design allows the reader to follow along reading the text while listening to the audio narration. These books can be used for cognitive stimulation, entertainment, and even as a distraction tool to help calm agitation if needed. Most importantly, the reader gets to continue experiencing the joy of reading at their level of cognitive ability.
There are four books contained in this app:
The Tilly Family Tradition
The Lost Secret Recipe
The Scavenger Hunt
While Walking the Dog
If your loved does not show interest at first, try again later and at different times of the day.
Repetition can be comforting to a person with dementia, so allow them to read/listen/watch these stories as often as they like. You might think that they would get bored of doing the same thing repetitively when actually it is very comforting to them.