Tactile Reminiscing Ideas

Dementia care - I use the Kinetic Sand which comes with its own tray for easy use and cleanup. I do this as a one-on-one activity and we use the moulds to create a sandcastle, unicorn, turtle and crab. I also have a bag of shells that I collected from a local beach and we decorate the sand with those and reminisce about our days at the beach. Then we have a cone icecream.

I can now cheat on the beach theme and use the Kinetic sand, the looks on the residents faces is priceless...there is a cheaper version at KMart - $5 which is similar. KMart also have kinetic sand in a beige colour...a comment made that it looks and feels like brown sugar...leads into more reminiscing.

You could also try the kinetic sand. Very easy to clean up and great to use indoors .

For fine motor skills, Cheereo cereal bird feeders.

I have made a plastic sewing needle and threaded with yarn.

Threaded cheereos and hung outside for the birds to eat

( deer, squirrels, ect) . Residents both male and female enjoyed this task especially placing the finished product outside in courtyard.

Hi great ideas unfortunately this would be deemed childish and not appropriate in our facility, so sad

A new activity has been posted by a Golden Carers member: Tactile and reminiscing for all areas

To encourage residents to use their fine motor skills and reminisce at the same time, I've taken in some lego and let their imagination go wild...this was well received. I've also taken in Mr Potato head and in the summer will be taking in some sand, bucket and spades (of course I will do this outside and use water to help the castles stay put). You can also use the traditional flour and water to make damper or a scone mix. These ideas give way to lots of reminiscing.