Making conscious tactile and tangible connections can be beneficial for seniors living with dementia. The practice of Tactile Stimulation is a method employed to help individuals with dementia connect to their environment with their sense of touch. The process can have tremendous psychological, emotional, and cognitive benefits.
Tactile Stimulation is the practice of using physical stimuli to deliberately elicit a range of sensations through the sense of touch. Interaction with items of different textures, shapes, sizes, and consistency can help individuals with dementia relate their sense of touch to things that surround them in their everyday lives.
Seniors living with the realities of dementia often face sensory difficulties that can inhibit their experience of daily life in significant ways. Using Tactile Stimulation to help seniors with dementia better connect with their sense of touch can play a role in adjusting to some of the challenging facets of life that accompany dementia.
Seniors with dementia are presented with a range of potential complications in daily life like isolation, anxiety, apprehension, melancholy, confusion, and other negative emotions that can take their toll. The integration of Tactile Stimulation into seniors’ routines has the potential to help to address and ease the intensity of some of these problems faced by individuals with dementia.
Getting seniors involved in purposeful interactions with tactile elements in their environment can be simple and straightforward. It can be as easy as setting up the home environment in a way that highlights different textures, sizes, and shapes. It may involve setting aside some time to sit down on a regular basis and engage with different and varied objects one by one.
The following are a few of the many ways in which seniors can connect more often and more profoundly to their sense of touch:
Tactile Stimulation is already a part of seniors’ everyday lives, but making it a purposeful and mindful practice can be extremely helpful for seniors who are dealing with dementia.
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