• It can cause a lot of tension for people with dementia to only rely on their memory. They may desperately want to remember a shared memory with their family and feel frustrated when they cannot remember this. “In-the-moment experiences” allow them to stay focused in a particular moment in time rather than having to recall memories where they might have more difficulty, or to be focused on just reminiscence.

• “In-the-moment experiences” allow a person to participate fully in that moment, emotionally and cognitively, as they are learning and also discovering something about themselves.

• Arts-based activities lend themselves particularly well to in-the-moment experiences because they do not necessarily rely on memory or previous knowledge.

• Caregivers are reporting that senior learners have begun talking about these activities after sessions are over, which is something that has not happened for many of them before.

Download this as a Word Document: Model Answer Unit 3, Activity 5.3, In-the-moment Experiences (7.8 KB)

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