Daily Activities Part 1

From FB September 11, 2015:

"I thought I'd share a few pics of Dad's day. One of his regular activities is doing puzzles. These are the jumbo pieces that are easier for him to see and handle, because he also has macular degeneration and glaucoma." 

 

"It's fascinating to see what his abilities are and what changes from day to day. Today I thought I'd start him on coloring, because it's new and because I was curious about what he can actually see. I'm surprised by his dexterity and ability to not only stay within the lines, but his desire to go back and fix things. This first picture was done with me picking out crayons and suggesting he color in a space or object."

From FB September 12, 2015: "One idea leads to another. Thank goodness I hadn't yet gotten around to purging the rest of the kids' older games. This was one of their favorites. Took a couple of tries before he understood they had to match, but once he got going he got faster and faster. It's so interesting to see how deliberate he is. Scanning the faces repeatedly, sometimes holding his card right next to another to compare."

 

Present Day - 2 months later, Dad still works on the barn and fish puzzles, though he is also branching out into other similar puzzles. One of the things that becomes clear with Alzheimer's is that quirks do not improve. For example, back in August Dad had trouble with orienting a piece. He couldn't tell that a piece was supposed to be an edge piece and would try to put it into the middle. But at that point he could still tell if a piece wasn't going to fit, most of the time. Now, he has the same issue, but in addition he still tries to make a piece fit even though it doesn't. The fish puzzle was and remains the most challenging puzzle. When I do it with him, I help him with the edges, and simply try to get him to see similarities in body parts and colors. Thankfully he is able to see them.

The interesting thing is that he has gotten to be a whiz at the matching game. He has absolutely no trouble matching the faces from randomly scattered order, and placing them in the box. In the past, when the bottom of the box was covered with one layer of paired cards, he would say, "Oh, there's no more room for any more cards." However, just two days ago I came back to find the entire box filled with the lid back on, and he was saying, "Okay I'm finished." Fascinating.