Above all, however, keeping people with dementia busy prevents boredom. Both those affected and healthy people suffer from it. If they are plagued by monotony, they wander restlessly around the house, kneading and rubbing their hands. However, as new information is no longer memorized well and concentration wanes after about 20 minutes, leisure activities must be one thing above all: uncomplicated. "The big activity and ideas book for people with dementia" provides some great suggestions. All of them are very easy to implement. Here are five of them.

Many older people spent a lot of time outdoors as children and are therefore still very familiar with nature. What they learned during this period of their lives usually sticks in their memory for a long time. This game makes use of this: you and your family collect twigs, leaves, pieces of bark and fruit from trees. Then they guess at home: Which plants are they?

Red becomes bread in the blink of an eye

Word games don't need any materials at all. This one is no exception: A letter is added to a word and a new word is created. For example, goat becomes brick and red becomes bread. If your partner has trouble guessing, you can rewrite the word. This is not only good memory training for dementia, but also a great way to pass the time on long car journeys.

Sorting stamps - an entertaining activity for dementia patients

Why not start collecting stamps again? After all, it used to be a popular hobby. Sorting the stamps is entertaining, and the motifs on them also provide plenty of ideas for conversation. For example: "Which country does the stamp come from? What can you see?"

Music also stimulates conversation. Find out when people used to sing. Especially in church? Or at school? Put on a CD with folk songs and play one briefly. Now everyone has to find out the title. Then listen to the song in full and/or sing it. In case you and your family are no longer sure of the lyrics: You will find a selection of well-known folk tunes in the book appendix.

This activity idea for dementia patients, which also challenges the sense of hearing, is extremely enjoyable: You place various tins on the table. Each one has been filled beforehand, for example with nails, stones, rice, coffee, soup noodles or sand. Now the first player is allowed to pick up a can and shake it vigorously. Will he find out what's inside? The secret is revealed when the lid is opened. Now it's the next player's turn. Let's see how fast he is...

You can find even more great ideas in the book "Das große Beschäftigungs- und Ideen-Buch für Menschen mit Demenz", SingLiesel Verlag, €24.95.