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Jennifer  avatar

Can anyone recommend a book of short stories to read to residents with dementia?

Emily avatar

I use print outs of Aesop's Fables you can find on google! Hopefully this helps :)

Carrie  avatar

Chicken Soup for the Soul books have always been a hit.

Susan avatar

Hi Emily

I like the Aesops fables too

Susan avatar

Hi Jennifer

Welcome to Golden Carers

You will not be disappointed with this group

There are many intelligent creative members here

I always used the chicken soup for the soul stories

I think the shorter stories are best

It is important to be excited and engaging when reading a story

Let the residents give their opinions about aspects of the story

You can use many types of short stories as long as you make it interesting and exciting for the residents

Golden Carers has short stories you can use

Elisa avatar
Elisa Senior Activity Coordinator

Fables are great, also Sufi moral stories with Nasrudin, the holy fool.

I have found Limericks great for reading time and dementia so I bought Eduard Lear's collected works. The greatest thing is that they are short and can be printed big for residents to read aloud.

I also have a book of Irish History (I work in Ireland) written for tourist with very short chapters that I use.

Susan avatar

Thank you Elisa

Activities  avatar

where do we get the chicken soup for the soul stories please and thank you

Annemarie avatar
Annemarie Recreation Activity Assistant

If you don't want to read (or if you do), there was a Canadian author by the name of Stuart McLean who wrote a lot of entertaining short stories. There are lots of them in audio form that he performed that are available to listen to on YouTube and Spotify. They are a little longer though, about 15-20 minutes usually. They are also in book form but are slightly different. I like the audio because he has good timing and expression. There are a lot of popular stories about Christmas such as Dave Cooks the Turkey. I also like Code Yellow (or Hospital Dave), Dave Goes to the Dentist, The Carwash, and so many others. Also they might enjoy some of the shorter stories that Bob Newhart used to do, like The Driving Lesson. Here's a link to a youtube playlist for some of Stuart McLean's stories that you can check out to see what you think: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCQson4i_mHj6CFffka5oueAktnJRZEZm hopefully the link works.

Annemarie avatar
Annemarie Recreation Activity Assistant

Another thought are the short story videos that you can find on youtube that were done by former motivational speaker/comic Jeanne Robertson. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEF37AC36F1F9D7DC&si=FcnilxKG5yUGWk6y

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