Books for senior with short attention span and dwindling comprehension

[Anonymous]

He might like the new James Patterson book Walk the Blue Line. It's not fiction so there aren't characters to remember, it's true stories about police officers in their own words.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/IMAGERENDERING_521856-T2/images/I/412VF3ajBsL._SX321_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

[Anonymous]

My father is 87 and he no longer has the ability to read books and follow the narrative for that long. However he loves my collection of AARP magazines which has short and pertinent articles about health for his age (he is interested and was a medical doctor) and for Christmas I bought him an enormous coffee table sized book published by National Geographic of fascinating wonders of the world. He loves the pages and pages of gorgeous pictures and can take in the snippets of info about the places. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

My mom went from reading complicated things to simpler novels (the kind she used to dismiss). Now I dont think she can really read anymore (she can read the words, but not get the meaning) as she has moderate/severe dementia. She does seem to enjoy pictures though so I have gotten picture books (art, nature, etc). She still walks around with the NYT but I dont think she actually reads it. She also cant really follow television. I just bought some word search books and activities for people with dementia, we will see.

Only piece of advice I have is: dont get too invested in any one thing. Dementia is like always being two steps behind your parent's decline--as soon as you have found the solution, it stops working. We went from cell phone to landline but cordless phone to now a phone with programmed numbers attached to buttons with our pictures on it, and even that she can't really figure out half the time.

[Anonymous]

Them knowing you have an expectation of them: reading .. really, doing anything in particular, is very stressful to them. If you do come up with a strategy be very careful and light introducing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mom went from reading complicated things to simpler novels (the kind she used to dismiss). Now I dont think she can really read anymore (she can read the words, but not get the meaning) as she has moderate/severe dementia. She does seem to enjoy pictures though so I have gotten picture books (art, nature, etc). She still walks around with the NYT but I dont think she actually reads it. She also cant really follow television. I just bought some word search books and activities for people with dementia, we will see.

Only piece of advice I have is: dont get too invested in any one thing. Dementia is like always being two steps behind your parent's decline--as soon as you have found the solution, it stops working. We went from cell phone to landline but cordless phone to now a phone with programmed numbers attached to buttons with our pictures on it, and even that she can't really figure out half the time.

One thing my mom enjoys watching with me is Antiques Roadshow, which I don't think she watched before her cognitive decline. But now the short stories about objects (visuals! history! personal history!) are a fun thing to watch together when I visit.

I wish she could get to PBS Passport on her own, but that's a nonstarter.

[Anonymous]

I know someone who started to listen to audiobooks while reading the same book on paper or kindle.

The same person has started rereading childhood favorites (think Nancy Drew).

[Anonymous]

Chicken Soup books
Reader’s Digest

[Anonymous]

Mine also likes word search books.

I also bought some poetry books I can read out loud. Poems about dogs or whatever.