Alzheimer's Association Conference

My presentation at the Massachusetts Alzheimer's Association conference went very well. My topic was on adapting the home and activities for patients with AD.  There were 14 presentations at each of the three sessions, so there were a LOT of people there, mostly health care professionals.
I really enjoyed hearing Claire McClain, an activities director at Cooperative Elder Services describe some of the creative activities that she does with her residents. I also learned a  new trick - using Gold Fish as bingo markers just in case they get eaten (actually an attendee told me about that one).
I learned how to make your own puzzles by finding a meaningful picture, gluing it to colored paper, cutting out the pieces and then covering them with clear contact paper or laminating them. If all the pieces to one puzzle have the same color paper on the bottom it will be easy to keep them together in a set.
I liked the magazine picture scavenger hunt and poetry created by writing a person's name in a vertical column and then coming up with adjectives to describe that person using words that begin with the letters in the name. But my favorite activity was making sand art by rolling sidewalk chalk over salt in order to create inexpensive colorful "sand". Then the sand art bottles are made the usual way.