Order an iPod Touch right from here!
The following quote is taken from a report I read on the Wall Street Journal website:
One of the raps on iPods is that users tend to close themselves off from other people and retreat into their own private world. But with stroke and dementia patients, iPods and other MP3 players are having just the opposite effect.
With the help of some old familiar tunes, advanced-dementia patients at Beth Abraham Family of Health Services in New York are reconnecting with their memories and with each other in ways that may seem surprising for those with degenerative brain diseases. Listening to rap and reggae on a borrowed iPod every day has helped Everett Dixon, a 28-year-old stroke victim at Beth Abraham Health Services in Bronx, N.Y., learn to walk and use his hands again.
Trevor Gibbons, 52, who fell out of a fourth-floor construction site and suffered a crushed larynx, has become so entranced with music that he’s written 400 songs and cut four CDs. Ann Povodator, an 85-year-old Alzheimer’s patient in Boynton Beach, Fla., listens to her beloved opera and Yiddish songs every day on an iPod with her home health aide or her daughter when she comes to visit. “We listen for at least a half-hour, and we talk afterwards,” says her daughter, Marilyn Povodator. “It seems to touch something deep within her.”
Caregivers have observed for decades that Alzheimer’s patients can still remember and sing songs long after they’ve stopped recognizing names and faces. Many hospitals and nursing homes use music as recreation, since it brings patients pleasure. But beyond the entertainment value, there’s growing evidence that listening to music can also help stimulate seemingly lost memories and even help restore some cognitive function.
via IPod Therapy for Alzheimer’s Patients – WSJ.com.
I am a big fan of iPods and similar devices for senior citizens. I myself have an iPhone, which is basically an iPod with a phone built into it. I am aware that many of you will be skeptical because you think such devices are too complicated for seniors. However, as I have pointed out often in my Master Minds blog, using complicated devices can be quite effective in minimizing memory loss due to aging. Now we discover that the musical features can be helpful even for those who have already suffered memory loss.
Well, okay, you might not want to actually leave an iPod in the hands of a person who is experiencing dementia, but such a device can certainly be used, under supervision, to provide the kinds of therapeutic benefits set out in this article, and in the video I have embedded above. Technology can be highly beneficial for those who are willing to be creative and thoughtful in applying its use. IPod music therapy for dementia patients is a perfect example.
Do you have examples of using technology to improve the quality of life of a senior citizen? Are you a technological senior citizen yourself? Please leave your comments below.
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