Hi. I’ve heard what a good thing to have to help carers, friends and family to converse with someone who has dementia is a life story book. I’m not very good at this sort of thing but I’m going to hunt out some old photos of mum from when she was a baby, a little older, at school and her early career, marriage and children etc. Besides each photo I was going to type a caption and a bit of info. Can anyone advise what is the best sort of typescript to make it as clear as possible .
Creating a life story book
- Thread starter Ethelburga
- Start date
Great idea. I did one for my husband. I used photos of his parents and grandparents, his neighbourhood years ago, his children (from his first marriage, he was 30 years my senior) when they were children, as they grew up and as adults, hoping he would be able to keep a connection to them for longer that way. He added things that caught his fancy to it too: wrappers from his favourite chocolate bar, a peacock feather his daughter sent him, a feather from one of our hens, a pretzel, a picture of a luscious looking strawberry (he always said "Yum!" when he saw that!) and other odds and ends.
Don't know about typeface, but something bold and clear.
Don't know about typeface, but something bold and clear.
@creativesarah has done a lot of work on Memory Books. If she sees this she might post a link to her helpful information!
I made memory books for both my husband and my mother. As well as being a vehicle for discussion in the earlier days I found that in the later stages of dementia my husband still liked to turn the pages and look at the photos. He would often just point at a photo or trace round a person in the photo and smile.
I made memory books for both my husband and my mother. As well as being a vehicle for discussion in the earlier days I found that in the later stages of dementia my husband still liked to turn the pages and look at the photos. He would often just point at a photo or trace round a person in the photo and smile.
I did one for dad initially for live in carers as a tool of communication with him and interest for him. The live in carer phase wasn't successful but when he moved into a care home the activities ladies used it to chat with him and I always used it most visits and particularly when interaction became more difficult, he eventually in advanced stage showed no interest in it at all but it had been invaluable for over 2 years. I also put photos in of places he and mum had visited a lot....holiday photos, photos of his family, photos of dad as a child, photos of him in national service uniform,his RC church, his cricket club ground and team photo from the 40's, photos of the team logo and ground of the football team he had supported since
a boy, photos of dad at work, anything I could think...all with captions so anyone else looking at the book with dad would know the relevance for dad. I updated every now and again if I came across anything else to add. I found initially when dad could still read that he found lower case letters easier to recognise than capitals and I wrote fairly large simple type.
a boy, photos of dad at work, anything I could think...all with captions so anyone else looking at the book with dad would know the relevance for dad. I updated every now and again if I came across anything else to add. I found initially when dad could still read that he found lower case letters easier to recognise than capitals and I wrote fairly large simple type.
Lots of good information for you here...we always used comic sans font....very clear. I have also seen photo albums that you can add a short recording for each photo, for when a PWD no longer reads.
Hi
Memory books are a great idea and fun to do
my document on it is on www.don'tcursethedarkness.weebly.com
feel free to contact me if I can help at all
Memory books are a great idea and fun to do
my document on it is on www.don'tcursethedarkness.weebly.com
feel free to contact me if I can help at all
