5.5 Further Development
Adapting Activities
Meaningful activities for elderly people with learning disabilities include physical, social and leisure activities that are tailored to the person’s needs and preferences. Activities can range from daily living such as dressing, eating and washing, to leisure activities such as reading, gardening, arts and crafts, conversation, and singing.
Instead of automatically helping with a task, we should adapt activities as needed to allow them to do as much as possible for as long as possible. That can help them retain abilities and stay active for longer.
Keeping elderly people with LD actively engaged in everyday activities and cognitively challenging tasks is beneficial for both body and mind and, in some cases, it can even slow the progression of aging and dementia. Staying active and engaged can help to reduce sleep problems, as well. People experience positive outcomes from participating in meaningful activity or occupation, including: a sense of purpose or meaning to life, a structure or routine to the day; acquisition of skills, feeling useful.
Activities can also reduce common age related dementia behaviors, like agitation, repeated questions, and anger. This keeps them engaged and occupied as well as giving them a way to use their energy in a positive way.
Doing physical activity in groups is a great way to improve fitness for adults with LD. It also creates opportunities to socialise.
There are lots of popular activities that groups can enjoy. With a few changes, lots of fun group activities can be adapted so that they are accessible for everyone.
When adapting activities for a group setting, it’s important to have an awareness of the abilities of different group members.
The adapting activities guides on the link below will give you ideas on how to make group activities more accessible.
Other ways of helping to adapt activities can include:
Support staff can set up the scene – that might mean laying out clothes in the order needed to put them on, or setting up ingredients needed to make a certain dish. Similarly, laying out the arts and crafts materials, sports equipment or kit needed to ensure that the person can access this easily, helping to have what they need ready to do the activity.
Staying in the room or nearby when they are doing the activity can be incredibly helpful, too. Being ready just in case they need assistance. If there’s something that they forgot or that you need to help set up again, you’re already right there.
The other reason to stay there and just be ready to help is that they may need prompting. If your person is experiencing cognitive changes, like dementia, they may forget what comes next in a sequence of events, even if they’ve done that activity plenty of times before.
Something else that can help is to model activities for your person. – by joining and in doing the activity alongside them. Or you can place your hand gently over theirs when undertaking the more, finer motor skilled activities and guide them. They are still doing the activity themselves, but support staff are there to offer them the guidance that they need to follow through.
Targets – adapting these to challenge individuals
The SMART in SMART goals stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. Defining these parameters as they pertain to your goal helps ensure that your objectives are attainable within a certain time frame
To make sure your goals are clear and reachable, each one should be:
- Specific (simple, sensible, significant).
- Measurable (meaningful, motivating).
- Achievable (agreed, attainable).
- Relevant (reasonable, realistic and resourced, results-based).
Example: Complete a daily cardio exercise routine.
SMART Goal: Within six months, I will have completed 30-minute walks six days out of every week.
Specific: To start, the first week I will walk 10-20 minutes at a slow pace for three out of seven days. Each successive week, add one or two minutes, walk faster, and add one day a week until I am up to six days a week and I can do a half mile in under 30 minutes.
Measurable: I will use my Fitbit tracker to measure days, time, steps, miles, and minutes.
Achievable: Based on previous experiences, I know I can achieve this. I will use a walking buddy/carer to help ensure motivation.
Realistic: Because of getting support through my carer or family, and having had a recent medical checkup, I know I can realistically do this. I believe I can do more,but want to accomplish this first before raising my level.
Time-Bound: I’m giving myself 6 months by breaking it up to weekly first then, monthly
This goal action plan can be used for any type of goal: losing weight, physical exercise, stress, emotional factors, enjoyment, and play― whatever is a goal for an elderly person to positively develop their healthy active aging programme.
Examples of goals/targets to promote active aging and healthy longevity
- Go for a walk most days or take part in a gym class
- Engage in social activities, physical/cognitive
- Learn a new practical skill or craft
- Cook and eat healthy, nutrient-rich foods
- Help others by giving or volunteering
- Relax for an hour a day through reading, yoga, mindfulness
Timetables and routines
Having a routine lets older adults with LD predict and plan their day, which makes them feel safe and stable. It’s also easier to cope with memory and cognitive issues when everything else is known and predictable.
Older people with LD experience greater difficulty when attempting to do new things. A predictable routine can prevent a person with dementia from becoming distracted and forgetting what they were doing. Even if there is little or no conscious awareness of time, routine helps ground them. Routine helps them to create positive daily habits that promote self-care. They can organise their time around things that they feel are important to maintain their happiness and feelings of fulfillment.
It’s important to keep the brain active as we get older. Learning new skills or about new subjects is a great way to keep the mind sharp. Continued learning can improve memory for older people with LD, by maintaining brain cells and making sure those cells properly communicate with each other.
When it come to routines, it is important to develop timetables of activities for the person you are supporting regularly, by updating the content of activities to suit their individual needs. Elderly people with LD may decline at different rates in various ways including physical, mental or cognitive.
The continuous assessment of the effectiveness of activity schedules, are an essential process of an active aging programme. Regularly reviewing person centred plan’s and analysing what has worked well, or not so well is the key to being able to make changes by refreshing a timetable, or by simply stretching and challenging them further by trying new things. Putting the individual back in control of what it is they want to achieve or work towards, is the underlying principle of achieving a successful active aging programme.