Additional inspirational material

Games of sorting figures or objects by colour, shape or size; matching pictures of relatives or objects and their names….

Propose word games and other activities to stimulate language: synonyms/antonyms, say words that begin with a letter or a category (for example: “animals”, “cities”, “fruits”… or you can make it more complex “animals that begin with the letter A”), play Hangman or Pasapalabra.

Completing or remembering popular sayings and proverbs.

Put sentences from religious prayers, poems or well-known songs in order.

Do simple addition and subtraction with paper and pencil.

Board games: parcheesi, goose, checkers….

Dominoes, bingo…

Card games. If the person is not already able to play correctly, you can ask them to sort the cards by suit, order them by number or count them.

Sewing, knitting, crochet….

Colouring pictures, painting with watercolours or crayons, cutting and pasting…

Crafts and collages.

Looking through collections, books or searching online for information related to the person’s tastes and hobbies.

If you have a garden or plants at home, you can do activities such as watering and caring for plants, planting seeds, raking leaves, flower arrangements…

Talking about old times. Better if we can have family photo albums or videos to stimulate reminiscence as a support.

Look for old objects and utensils at home and ask the person to tell us about their memories associated with that object (for example many women have their wedding dresses saved).

Write family stories or make a life history by reviewing significant events and chapters (childhood, adolescence, first job, how you met your partner, birth of children…).

Playing a familiar instrument.

Listening to favourite music.

Trying to guess the name or artist of the song when it is played.

Singing and karaoke.

Hand massages with moisturising cream or aromatic oils.

Personal grooming: combing hair, grooming and painting nails…

Stimulate taste, smell and touch while helping with cooking or in the garden.

Find an opaque bag (e.g. cloth), put everyday objects in it and play What’s in the bag? trying to recognise the objects by touch.

Use new technologies such as computers, tablets and mobile phones.

There are many applications and games.

Video calls with family members (using Whatsapp, Skype, Zoom…).

Praying together.

Reading the bible.

Reciting and/or writing prayers.

Singing or listening to mass songs.