Keep people with dementia fully engaged in daily life and help them maximize remaining functional skills by tapping into their innate abilities and interests. Engaging and Communicating with People Who Have Dementia is a trove of advice on how to identify people's strengths and preferences and then use this knowledge to improve activity programming, communication, and functional independence. Individualizing activities, interactions, or interventions at any moment of the day is made easy with the many helpful suggestions offered throughout the pages of this innovative guide. Here are keys to successfully choosing leisure activities for individuals that emphasize their previous interests and talents as well as current capabilities. Includes these valuable assessment and intervention tools:
• Informal Geriatric Strength-Based Inventory • Caregiver Questionnaire and Checklist • Personal Preferences Inventory • Strength-Based Summary Form • Dementia Care Staff Guide • Memory Loss Caregiver Guide • SIMPLE (Simplified Inventory of Multiple Potential and Leisure Engagement) Based on the principles of multiple intelligences, this resource provides handy assessment forms and instructive explanations and examples to help uncover and then build on each person's unique abilities. Abundant activity ideas are showcased for each type of intelligence—linguistic, logical, visual, tactile, auditory, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic—plus strategies for adapting them as a person's abilities decline. Features that make this resource especially useful for enriching person-centered programming, include advice on available technologies that enhance communication, promote independence, and stimulate cognition
guidelines for matching activities to early, middle and late stages of dementia
valuable assessment tools for use by staff, family, and the individual
downloadable, reusable forms
Activity professionals, nursing staff, speech-language pathologists, and even family caregivers can help maintain meaningful and enjoyable interactions with an adult diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease using this strength-based approach. About the author: Eileen Eisner, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, is a speech-language pathologist with more than 30 years of experience. She specializes in communication disorders related to Alzheimer's disease, as well as language-learning disorders in school-age children. Eisner is the author of Merging Language Intervention with Classroom Practices: A Guide for the Speech-Language Pathologist (1998), and Can Do Activities for Adults with Alzheimer's Disease: Strength-Based Communication and Programming (2001). She served as the Director of Speech and Language Services of Westfield, NJ. Eisner has presented papers at both the state and national meetings of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association as well as the Alzheimer's Association. A seasoned consultant, Eisner has written professional articles on practical intervention strategies for adults who have neurodegenerative dementias and also provides staff training sessions on the strategies. | 
