Montessori classroom for Alzheimer’s disease patients

A beau­ti­ful ini­tia­tive, fea­tured in the New York Times today:
Com­ing Full Circle:

- “In a typ­i­cal Montes­sori class­room, teach­ers use cat­e­go­ry-sort­ing exer­cis­es to help young stu­dents see pat­terns and con­nec­tions. But the par­tic­i­pants in this group were most­ly in their 80s and on the oth­er side of the cog­ni­tive devel­op­ment curve. They are res­i­dents at an assist­ed-liv­ing facil­i­ty for peo­ple with demen­tia called Hearth­stone at the Esplanade, which has six oth­er homes in New York State and Mass­a­chu­setts. Since July the res­i­dents have par­tic­i­pat­ed in a full-time pro­gram of Montes­sori-based activ­i­ties designed for peo­ple with mem­o­ry deficiencies.”

- “A com­mon mis­con­cep­tion about peo­ple with demen­tia, Dr. Camp said, is that they no longer learn. But they do: res­i­dents learn to find their din­ing room table, for exam­ple, well after the onset of Alzheimer’s dis­ease. And because they no longer have the high­er brain func­tion they had as adults, he rea­soned, they are well suit­ed to Montessori.”

Full arti­cle: Com­ing Full Cir­cle.

Relat­ed posts:

- Alzheimer’s Risk and Pre­ven­tion: the Cog­ni­tive Reserve

- Your com­ments on cog­ni­tive train­ing, Posit Sci­ence, Alzheimer’s Aus­tralia, geron­tol­ogy, games