SHAFAQNA SCIENCE- A new study shows that people with dementia can still learn new things.
As part of his doctoral thesis through Linköping University, Sweden, Elias Ingebrand wanted to see how learning was affected by dementia. Mostly, he wanted to challenge the prevailing assumptions about people with dementia, namely, that they were passive and disengaged and struggled to interact socially.
He gave computer tablets to 10 people with various forms of dementia, eight of whom lived in care facilities. None of them had used a tablet before. Supported by staff or a family member, the only instructions given to participants were to use the tablet however they wanted.
Ingebrand and his colleagues video-recorded their interactions with the tablet and found that participants soon became curious about the device.
Despite severe memory loss and difficulties communicating verbally, over the course of four to six weeks, the participants gradually learned how to use the tablet more independently.
Source: newatlas