Autumn DiNenna
1. Activity Title: Word Search
2. Sources for your activity and for your adaptations (APA citations)
○ Three cognitive games for seniors that you have to try - Port St. lucie
Hospital, INC.: Florida mental health services. (2020, June 03). Retrieved
April 09, 2021, from
https://www.portstluciehospitalinc.com/3-cognitive-games-for-seniors-that-
you-have-to-try/
○ Brain-boosting games that can help ward off dementia. (n.d.). Retrieved
April 09, 2021, from
https://www.claretianassociates.org/blog/brain-boosting-games-that-can-h
elp-ward-off-dementia
○ Younger/early-onset alzheimer's. (n.d.). Retrieved April 09, 2021, from
https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/what-is-alzheimers/younger-early
-onset
3. Equipment needed:
○ pen/pencil
○ Online word search maker or make it on your own, then print it out
○ A timer or clock to set a time limit
4. Activity Description: The object of this activity is to focus on cognitive thinking.
Word searches have been proven to help patients who have dementia, and
alzhermiers. They are proven to help people who are aging keeping their minds
active and engaged. They are easily adaptable to make hard or easy depending
on the patient.
○ You will have 10 minutes to look through the word search and try to find 12
words. All the words will be within the same category so it is easier to look
for them.
○ The words can either be forward, backward, and diagonal
○ The goal of this activity is to find all the words/ or most of them under the
time limit
5. Primary social interaction pattern(s) (activity analysis):
○ The primary social interaction is intraindividual. This is because action is taking
place within the mind of a person and one part of the body.
6. Adaptation: One researched adaptation specific to a disability group assigned for
each of the four (4) uploaded activities. This is not for the purpose of leading
activities; this is only for the purpose of submitting activities.
○ Dementia is a general term for loss of memory, language, problem-solving
and other thinking abilities that are severe enough to interfere with daily
life. Early onset dementia is when you first get it and symptoms aren’t
normally severe yet. Word searches have been proven to help decrease
symptoms of early dementia, and help keep your mind active. Depending
on the patient's symptoms one adaptation would be modifying how many
words to find and how much time. Word searches tend to have 10-12
words to find. To adapt this activity we could decrease the words to 4-6 to
make it smaller and easier for the patient.
7. Participant: 75-year-old woman diagnosed with early onset dementia.