Why is it that I can remember the lyrics of every awful ’70s pop tune I catch the merest snatch of while turning a radio dial, but not the name of the street two miles away? The answer is good news; that is, if you spend time with someone who has Alzheimer’s, dementia, or Parkinson’s Disease.
For a person with a neurological impairment, music can “stimulate a sense of identity as nothing else can,” says neurologist Oliver Sacks, who writes about the evocative powers of music in last year’s bestseller, Musicophilia, and in the November issue of O magazine.
Some ideas to try:
Heyday favorites. Unsure what the person has long liked (jazz, big band, classical)? Google “music era” with the decades during which the person was a teenager or in his or her 20s (1920s, 1940s, and so on).
Christmas carols. ‘Tis the season (so stores already tell us). Start with classics: Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Elvis, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.
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11 Types of Music that Soothe Dementia « A Psychiatrist with Lewy Body Dementia (LBD)
1 comment:
I know my maths achievement is weak, but how does this add up to eleven types? I think it also assumes the patient observes Christmas-- which my mother (93, advanced dementia) doesn't. But the principle of researching what music she loved and which really moved her is a good one. She loves "Zadok the Priest" by Handel, which was the coronation anthem played at the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953.
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